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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/13660-0.txt b/13660-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..339dbb3 --- /dev/null +++ b/13660-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9804 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13660 *** + +THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THOMAS CARLYLE AND RALPH WALDO EMERSON +1834-1872 + +VOLUME II + + + +"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 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME II + +LXXVI. Emerson. Concord, 1 July, 1842. Remittance of L51.-- +Alcott.--Editorship of the _Dial._--Projected essay on Poetry.-- +Stearns Wheeler. + +LXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 19 July, 1842. Acknowledgment of +remittance.--Change of publishers.--Work on _Cromwell._-- +Sterling.--Alcott. + +LXXVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 August, 1842. Impotence of +speech.--Heart-sick for his own generation.--Transcendentalism of +the _Dial._ + +LXXIX. Emerson. Concord, 15 October, 1842. The coming book on +Cromwell.--Alcott.--The _Dial_ and its sins.--Booksellers' +accounts. + +LXXX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 November, 1842. Accounts.--Alcott.-- +Sect-founders.--Man the Reformer.--James Stephen.--Gambardella. + +LXXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 11 March, 1843. _Past and Present._-- +How to prevent pirated republication.--The _Dial._--Alcott's +English Tail. + +LXXXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 1 April, 1843. Copy of _Past and +Present_ forwarded.--Prospect of pirated edition. + +LXXXIII. Emerson. Concord, 29 April, 1843. Carlyle's star.-- +Lectures on "New England" at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New +York.--Politics in Washington.--_Past and Present._--Effect of +cheap press in America.--Reprint of the book.--The _Dial_ does +not pay expenses. + +Extract from Emerson's Diary concerning _Past and Present._ + +LXXXIV. Carlyle. 27 August, 1843. Introduction of Mr. Macready. + +LXXXV. Emerson. Concord, 30 October, 1843. Remittance of L25.-- +Piratical reprint of _Past and Present._--E.P. Clark, a +Carlylese, to be asked to take charge of accounts.--Henry James. +--Ellery Channing's Poems. + +LXXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 31 October, 1843. Summer wanderings. +--The _Dial_ at the London Library.--Growth of Emerson's public +in England.--Piratical reprint of his Essays in London.--of +_Past and Present_ in America.--Criticism of Carlyle in the +Dial.--Dr. Russell.--Theodore Parker.--Book about Cromwell.-- +_Commons Journals._ + +LXXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 November, 1843. Receipt of L25.-- +E.P. Clark.--Henry James.--Channing's Poems.--Reverend W.H. +Channing.--"Progress of the Species."--Emerson.--The Cromwell +business. + +LXXXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 31 December, 1843. Macready.-- +Railroad to Concord.--Margaret Fuller's Review of Sterling's +Poems in the _Dial._--Remittance of L32. + +LXXXIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 31 January, 1844. Remittance received +and made.--Criticism of Emerson by Gilfillan.--John Sterling.-- +Cromwell book.--Hexameters from Voss. + +XC. Emerson. Concord, 29 February, 1844. Acknowledgment of +remittance.--A new collection of Essays.--Faith in Writers as a +class.--Remittance of L36.--Proposal concerning publication in +America of _Cromwell._ + +XCI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 April, 1844. Acknowledgment of +remittance.--Piratical reprints.--Professor Ferrier. + +XCII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 5 August, 1844. Fear for Sterling.-- +Tennyson.--Work on _Cromwell_ frightful. + +XCIII. Emerson. Concord, 1 September, 1844. Sends proof sheets +of new book of Essays.--Sterling. + +XCIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 September, 1844. Death of Sterling. + +XCV. Emerson. Concord, 30 September, 1844. Remittance of L30-- +Sterling.--Tennyson.--Regrets having troubled Carlyle about +proof-sheets.--Birth of Edward Emerson.--Purchase of land on +Walden Pond. + +XCVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 November, 1844. Thanks for +remittance.--London edition of _Essays,_ Second Series.-- +Criticism on them. + +XCVII. Emerson. Concord, 31 December, 1844. Sterling's death.-- +London edition of _Essays._--Carlyle's Preface and strictures. + +XCVIII. Emerson. Concord, 31 January, 1845. Bargain about +_Miscellanies_ with Carey and Hart.--Portrait of Carlyle +desired.--E.P. Clark's "Illustrations of Carlyle". + +XCIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 16 February, 1845. Bargain with Carey & +Co.--Portrait.--Emerson's public in England.--Work on Cromwell. + +C. Emerson. Concord, 29 June, 1845. Death of Mr. Carey.-- +Portrait.--His own occupations.--Preparing to print _Poems._-- +Lectures in prospect. + +CI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 August, 1845. _Cromwell's Letters and +Speeches_ finished.--Nature of the book.--New book from Emerson +welcome.--Imperfection of all modes of utterance.--Forbids +further plague with booksellers. + +CII. Emerson. Concord, 15 September, 1845. Payment sure from +Carey and Hart.--Lectures on "Representative Men". + +CIII. Emerson. Concord, 30 September, 1845. Congratulations on +completion of _Cromwell_ book.--Clark. + +CIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 11 November, 1845. Cromwell book sent.-- +Visit to Scotland.--Changes there.--His mother.--Impatience with +the times.--Weariness with the Cromwell book.--Visit to the +Ashburtons. + +CV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 January, 1846. Thanks to Mr. Hart, Mr. +Furness, and others.--_Cromwell proves popular.--New letters of +Cromwell. + +CVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 February, 1846. Second edition of +Cromwell.--Emerson to do what he will concerning republication.-- +Anti-Corn-Law.--Aristocracy and Millocracy. + +CVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 March, 1846. Cromwell lumber.--Sheets +of new edition sent.-Essay on Emerson in an Edinburgh Magazine.-- +Mr. Everett.--Jargon in Newspapers and Parliament. + +CVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 April, 1846. Arrangements +concerning reprint of _Cromwell._--Promise of Daguerrotype +likeness.--Fifty years old.--Rides.--Emerson's voice wholly +human.--Blessedness in work. + +CIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 30 April, 1846. Photograph sent.-- +Arrangements with Wiley and Putnam for republication of +_Cromwell_ and other books.--Photographs of Emerson and himself. +--Remembrance of Craigenputtock. + +CX. Emerson. Concord, 14 May, 1846. Daguerrotype likeness.-- +Wood-lot on Walden Pond. + +CXI. Emerson. Concord, 31 May, 1846. Photograph of Carlyle +received.--One of himself sent in return.--Bargain with Wiley +and Putnam. + +CXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 June, 1846. Bargain with Wiley and +Putnam.--Emerson's photograph expected. + +CXIII. Emerson. Concord, 15 July, 1846. Wiley and Putnam.-- +Dealings with booksellers.--Accounts.--E.P. Clark and his +Illustrations of Carlyle's Writings.--Margaret Fuller going to +Europe. + +CXIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 July, 1846. Photograph of Emerson +unsatisfactory.--Revision of his own books.--Spleen against +books.--Going to Scotland.--Reading in American history.-- +Marshall and Sparks.--Michelet.--Beriah Green. + +CXV. Emerson. Concord, 31 July, 1846. Thanks for copy of new +edition of Cromwell.--Margaret Fuller.--Desires Carlyle to see +her. + +CXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 December, 1846. Long silence.-- +Disconsolate two months in Scotland.--Visit to Ireland.--A +country cast into the melting-pot.--O'Connell.--Young Ireland.-- +Returned home sad.--Miss Fuller; estimate of her.--What she +thought of Carlyle.--Emerson's Poems. + +CXVII. Emerson. Concord, 31 January, 1847. Margaret Fuller's +visit to Chelsea.--Speculates on going to England to lecture.-- +His _Poems._ + +CXVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 March, 1847. Visit to Hampshire.-- +Emerson's _Poems._--Prospect of Emerson's Lectures in England.-- +Miss Fuller. + +CXIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 March, 1847. Remittance received.-- +Alexander Ireland.--Advice concerning lectures. + +CXX. Emerson. Concord, 30 April, 1847. Prospect of lecturing in +England.--Works in garden and orchard. + +CXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 May, 1847. Thoreau's Lecture on +Carlyle.--Visit from E.R. Hoar.--Emerson's visit to England. + +CXXII. Emerson. Concord, 4 June, 1847. Prospect of visit to +England.--F.H. Hedge. + +CXXIII. Emerson. Concord, 31 July, 1847. Visit to England +decided upon.--Portrait of Sterling. + +CXXIV. Carlyle. Rawdon, Yorkshire, 31 August, 1847. +Journeyings.--Emerson's expected visit.--Hedge.--Dr. Jacobson.-- +Quaker hosts. + +CXXV. Emerson. Concord, 30 September, 1847. Plans for England. + +CXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 15 October, 1847. Delay of Emerson's +letter announcing his coming.--Welcome to Chelsea. + +Emerson--Extracts from his Diary concerning Carlyle. + +CXXVIl. Emerson. Manchester, 5 November, 1847. His reception +and occupations. + +CXXVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 November, 1847. Messages.-- +Occupations.--Bancroft. + +CXXIX. Carlyle. Chelsea., 30 November, 1847. Messages.--Mr. +Forster, &c. + +CXXX. Emerson. Manchester, 28 December, 1847. Message from Miss +Fuller.--Hospitality shown him.--The English. + +CXXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 30 December, 1847. The Pepolis.-- +Milnes.--Tennyson.--Idleness.--Visit to Hampshire.--Massachusetts +Review. + +CXXXII. Emerson. Ambleside, 26 February, 1848. At Miss +Martineau's.--Wordsworth.--Proposed return to Chelsea. + +CXXXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 28 February, 1848. Welcome ready at +Chelsea.--His own conditions.--The new French Republic. + +CXXXIV. Emerson. Manchester, 2 March, 1848. Return to London. + +CXXXV. Emerson. [London,] 19 June, 1848. Proposed call with +Mrs. Crowe. + +CXXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 20 June, 1848. Mrs. Crowe.--Luncheon +with the Duchess. + +CXXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 23 June, 1848. Invitation to dinner. + +CXXXVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 6 December, 1848. Long silence.-- +Questions concerning Indian meal.--Death of Charles Buller, and +of Lord Ashburton's mother.--Neuberg and others. + +CXXXIX. Emerson. Boston, 23 January, 1849. John Carlyle's +translation of the Inferno.--Indian corn.--Clough's Bothie. + +CXL. Carlyle. Chelsea, 19 April, 1849. Indian corn from +Concord; trial of it, reflections upon it.--No writing at +present.--Macaulay's _History._--Political outlook.--Clough.-- +Sterling Club. + +CXLI. Carlyle. Scotsbrig, 13 August, 1849. Indian corn again.-- +Tour in Ireland.--Letter from Miss Fuller.--Message to Thoreau. + +CXLII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 19 July, 1850. A year's silence.-- +Latter Day Pamphlets.--Divergence from Emerson.--_Representative +Men._--Prescott lionized. + +CXLIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 14 November, 1850. "Eighteen million +bores."--Emerson on Latter Day Pamphlets.--Autumn Journey.-- +Disordered nerves. + +CXLIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 July, 1851. Appeal for news.--_Life +of Sterling._--Crystal Palace.--Bossu's _Journal,_ Bartram's +_Travels._--Margaret Fuller.--Mazzini.--Dr. Carlyle. + +CXLV. Emerson. Concord, 28 July, 1851. Story of the year.-- +Journey in the West.--Memoir of Margaret Fuller.--_Life of +Sterling._--English friends. + +CXLVI. Carlyle. Great Malvern, 25 August, 1851. _Life of +Sterling._--Bossu's _Journal._--Water-cure.--Twisleton.--Milnes +married.--Tennyson.--Browning on Miss Fuller. + +CXLVII. Emerson. Concord, 14 April, 1852. Browning's +Reminiscences of Margaret Fuller.--Books on the Indians.--_Life +of Sterling._ + +CXLVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 7 May, 1852. Correspondence must be +revived.--Margaret Fuller.--Memoirs of her. + +CXLIX. Emerson. Concord, May, 1852. Relations with Carlyle.-- +Carlyle's genius and his own.--Margaret Fuller. + +CL. Carlyle. Chelsea, 25 June, 1852. Emerson and himself.-- +Reading about Frederick the Great. + +CLI. Emerson. Concord, 19 April, 1853. Excuses for not +writing.--Chapter on Fate.--Visit to the West.--Conditions of +American life.--Clough. + +CLII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 May, 1853. Blessing of letters from +Emerson.--Coming on of old age.--Modern democracy.--Visit to +Germany.--Still reading about Fritz. + +CLIIa. Emerson. Concord, 10 August, 1853. Slowness to write.-- +Regret at Clough's return to England.--Miss Bacon.--Carlyle's +visit to Germany.--Thackeray in America.--New York and its society. + +CLIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 9 September, 1853. Regrets for old +days.--Not left town.--A new top story.--Miss Bacon, her Quixotic +enterprise.--Clough.--Thackeray.--To Concord? + +CLIV. Emerson. Concord, 11 March, 1854. Laurence, the artist.-- +Reading Latter Day Pamphlets.--Death of Carlyle's, and of +Emerson's mother.--Miss Bacon.--His English Notes.--Lecturing +tour in the West.--Speed _Frederick!_ + +CLV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 April, 1854. Thankful for Emerson's +letter.--Death of his mother.--Makes no way in Prussian History. +--The insuperable difficulty with _Frederick._--Literature in +these days.--Emerson's picture of America.--Battle of Freedom and +Slavery.--Emerson's book on England desired.--Miss Bacon. + +CLVI. Emerson. Concord, 17 April, 1855. Excuses for not +writing.--Unchanged feeling for Carlyle.--The American.--True +measure of life.--Musings of indolence. + +CLVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 May, 1855. Emerson's letters +indispensable; his complete understanding of Carlyle.--A grim +and lonely year.--Never had such a business as _Frederick._-- +Frederick himself.--"Balaklava."--Persistence of the English.-- +Urges Emerson to print his book on England. + +CLVIII. Emerson. Concord, 6 May, 1856. Letter-writing.--Leaves +of Grass.--Mrs. ---. + +CLIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 20 July, 1856. Emerson's letter +welcome.--Life a burden.--Going to Scotland.--_Life of Frederick_ +to go to press.--Mrs. ---.--Miss Bacon.--Browning. + +CLX. Carlyle. The Gill, Cummertrees, Annan, 28 August, 1856. +The debt of America to Emerson.--_English Traits_ will be +welcome.--Grateful for whatever Emerson may have said of +himself.--In retreat in Annan. + +CLXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 December, 1856. Close of negotiations +for printing a complete edition of his Works in America.-- +_English Traits._--Its excellence. + +CLXII. Emerson. Concord, 17 May, 1858. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph +Longworth.--Inquires for the _Frederick._--Desires a _liber +veritatis._--Friendship of old gentlemen. + +CLXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 June, 1858. Emerson's letter and +friends welcome.--First two volumes of Frederick just ready.-- +Ugliness of the job.--Occasional tone of Emerson in the +Magazines.--Health.--Separation of Dickens from his wife. + +CLXIII.* Carlyle. Chelsea, 9 April, 1859. Copy of _Frederick_ +sent to Emerson.--Nearly choked by the job.--Self-pity.-- +Emerson's speech on Burns. + +CLXIV. Emerson. Concord, I May, 1859. Arrival of first volumes +of _Frederick._--Illusion of children.--His own children.--A +correspondent of twenty-five years not to be disused. + +Extracts from Emerson's Diary respecting the _Frederick._ + +CLXV. Emerson. Concord, 16 April, 1860. Mr. O.W. Wight's new +edition of the _Miscellanies._--Sight at Toronto of two nephews +of Carlyle.--Carlyle commended to the Gods. + +CLXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 30 April, 1860. Encouragement from +Emerson's words about _Frederick._--Message to Mr. Wight. + +CLXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 January, 1861. Emerson's _Conduct +of Life._--Still twelve months from end of his task; nearly worn +out. + +CLXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 16 April, 1861. Thanks for last +note.--_Frederick._ + +CLXIX. Emerson. Concord, 8 December, 1862. The third volume +of _Frederick._--The manner of it.--The war in America--Death +of Clough. + +CLXX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 March, 1864. Introduction of the Hon. +Lyulph Stanley.--Mrs. Carlyle's ill-health. + +CLXXI. Emerson. Concord, 26 September, 1864. Sympathy.--Fourth +volume of Frederick.--Nature of the war in America--Mr. Stanley. + +CLXXII. Carlyle. Annandale, Scotland, 14 June, 1865. Completion +of _Frederick._--Saunterings.--Stay in Annandale.--Mrs. Carlyle. +--Photographs.--Mr. M.D. Conway.--The American Peacock. + +CLXXIII. Emerson. Concord, 7 January, 1866. The last volumes of +Friedrich.--America.--Conduct of Americans in war and in peace.-- +Photographs.--Little to tell of himself. + +CLXXIV. Emerson. Concord, 16 May, 1866. Mrs. Carlyle's death. + +CLXXV. Carlyle. Mentone, 27 January, 1867. Sad interval since +last writing.--His condition.--Mrs. Carlye's death.--Solace in +writing reminiscences.--Visit in Kent during summer.--Tennyson's +_Idyls._--Emerson's _English Traits._--Mentone. + +CLXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 November, 1869. Long abeyance of +correspondence.--Plan of bequeathing books to New England.-- +Emerson's counsel desired.--His own condition. + +CLXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 4 January, 1870. Arrangements +respecting bequest of books to Harvard College. + +CLXXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 23 January, 1870. Apologies for +delay.--Writing new book.--Delight in proposed bequest.--Advice +concerning. + +CLXXIX. Carlyle. Melchet Court, Romsey, 14 February, 1870. +Acknowledgment of letter. + +CLXXX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 24 February, 1870. Ending of the +Harvard business. + +CLXXXI. Emerson. Concord, 21 March, 1870. Visit to President +Eliot concerning the bequest to Harvard.--Reflections on the +gift.--Speech about it to others.--Must renew correspondence.-- +His own children. + +CLXXXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 24 March, 1870. Possible delay +of his last letter.--Society and Solitude not received. + +CLXXXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 6 April, 1870. Emerson's letter +received.--Thankful for the conclusion of the little +Transaction.--Reflections on it.--Regrets that it has been spoken +of.--_Society and Solitude._--News from Concord.--The night cometh. + +CLXXXIV. Emerson. Concord, 17 June, 1870. Excuses for delay in +writing.--Lectures on Philosophy.--Steps taken to secure privacy +in regard to bequest.--Chapman's Homer.--Error in address of +books.--Report of Carlyle's coming to America. + +CLXXXV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 28 September, 1870. Delay in +receiving Emerson's last letter.--Correction of error in address +of books.--Emerson's lectures.--Philosophies.--Too late for him +to come to America. + +CLXXXVI. Emerson. Concord, 15 October, 1870. The victim of +miscellany.--Library Edition of Carlyle's Works received.-- +Invitation.--The privilege of genius.--E.R. Hoar.--J.M. Forbes.-- +The growing youth.--The Lowell race. + +CLXXXVIa. Emerson. Concord, 10 April, 1871. Account of himself +and his work.--Introduction to Plutarch's _Morals._--Oration +before the New England Society in New York.--Lectures at +Cambridge.--Reprint of early writings.--About to go to California. + +CLXXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 4 June, 1871. Gap in +correspondence.--Unfriendly winter.--Completion of Library +Edition of his Works.--Significance of piracy of Emerson.-- +Conditions in America.--Anti-Anarchy.--J. Lee Bliss.--Finis +of the Copper Captaincy. + +CLXXXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 30 June, 1871. Return from +California.--California.--The plains.--Brigham Young.--Lucy +Garbett.--Carlyle's ill-health. + +CLXXXIX. Emerson. Concord, 4 September, 1871. Introduction of +his son Edward. + +CXC. Emerson. Baltimore, 5 January, 1872. Last instalment of +Library Edition of Carlyle's Works received.--Felicitations on +this completion.--Happiness in having been Carlyle's contemporary +and friend.--Carlyle's perversities.--Proposes to "retire and +read the authors."--Carlyle's talk. + +CXCI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 April, 1872. Excuses for silence.-- +Ill-health.--Emerson's letter about the West.--Aspect and meaning +of that Western World.--Ruskin.--Froude.--Write. + +----------- + + +CORRESPONDENCE OF CARLYLE AND EMERSON + + + +LXXVI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 1 July, 1842 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I have lately received from our slow friends, +James Munroe & Co., $246 on account of their sales of the +_Miscellanies,_--and I enclose a bill of Exchange for L51, which +cost $246.50. It is a long time since I sent you any sketch of +the account itself, and indeed a long time since it was posted, +as the booksellers say; but I will find a time and a clerk also +for this. + +I have had no word from you for a long space. You wrote me a +letter from Scotland after the death of your wife's mother, and +full of pity for me also; and since, I have heard nothing. I +confide that all has gone well and prosperously with you; that +the iron Puritan is emerging from the Past, in shape and stature +as he lived; and you are recruited by sympathy and content with +your picture; and that the sure repairs of time and love and +active duty have brought peace to the orphan daughter's heart. +My friend Alcott must also have visited you before this, and you +have seen whether any relation could subsist betwixt men so +differently excellent. His wife here has heard of his arrival on +your coast,--no more. + +I submitted to what seemed a necessity of petty literary +patriotism,--I know not what else to call it,--and took charge of +our thankless little _Dial,_ here, without subscribers enough to +pay even a publisher, much less any laborer; it has no penny for +editor or contributor, nothing but abuse in the newspapers, or, +at best, silence; but it serves as a sort of portfolio, to carry +about a few poems or sentences which would otherwise be +transcribed and circulated; and always we are waiting when +somebody shall come and make it good. But I took it, as I said, +and it took me, and a great deal of good time, to a small +purpose. I am ashamed to compute how many hours and days these +chores consume for me. I had it fully in my heart to write at +large leisure in noble mornings opened by prayer or by readings +of Plato or whomsoever else is dearest to the Morning Muse, a +chapter on Poetry, for which all readings, all studies, are but +preparation; but now it is July, and my chapter is rudest +beginnings. Yet when I go out of doors in the summer night, and +see how high the stars are, I am persuaded that there is time +enough, here or somewhere, for all that I must do; and the good +world manifests very little impatience. + +Stearns Wheeler, the Cambridge tutor, a good Grecian, and the +editor, you will remember, of your American Editions, is going to +London in August probably, and on to Heidelberg, &c. He means, I +believe, to spend two years in Germany, and will come to see you +on his way; a man whose too facile and good-natured manners do +some injustice to his virtues, to his great industry and real +knowledge. He has been corresponding with your Tennyson, and +editing his Poems here. My mother, my wife, my two little girls, +are well; the youngest, Edith, is the comfort of my days. Peace +and love be with you, with you both, and all that is yours. + + --R. W. Emerson + + +In our present ignorance of Mr. Alcott's address I advised his +wife to write to your care, as he was also charged to keep you +informed of his place. You may therefore receive letters for him +with this. + + + + +LXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 19 July, 1842 + +My Dear Emerson,--Lest Opportunity again escape me, I will take +her, this time, by the forelock, and write while the matter is +still hot. You have been too long without hearing of me; far +longer, at least, than I meant. Here is a second Letter from +you, besides various intermediate Notes by the hands of Friends, +since that Templand Letter of mine: the Letter arrived +yesterday; my answer shall get under way today. + +First under the head of business let it be authenticated that the +Letter enclosed a Draft for L51; a new, unexpected munificence +out of America; which is ever and anon dropping gifts upon me,-- +to be received, as indeed they partly are, like Manna dropped out +of the sky; the gift of unseen Divinities! The last money I got +from you changed itself in the usual soft manner from dollars +into sovereigns, and was what they call "all right,"--all except +the little Bill (of Eight Pounds and odds, I think) drawn on +Fraser's Executors by Brown (Little and Brown?); which Bill the +said Executors having refused for I know not what reason, I +returned it to Brown with note of the dishonor done it, and so +the sum still stands on his Books in our favor. Fraser's people +are not now my Booksellers, except in the matter of your _Essays_ +and a second edition of _Sartor;_ the other Books I got +transferred to a certain pair of people named "Chapman and Hall, +186 Strand"; which operation, though (I understand) it was +transacted with great and vehement reluctance on the part of the +Fraser people, yet produced no _quarrel_ between them and me, and +they still forward parcels, &c., and are full of civility when I +see them:--so that whether this had any effect or none in their +treatment of Brown and his Bill I never knew; nor indeed, having +as you explained it no concern with Brown's and their affairs, +did I ever happen to inquire. I avoid all Booksellers; see them +rarely, the blockheads; study never to think of them at all. +Book-sales, reputation, profit, &c., &c.; all this at present is +really of the nature of an encumbrance to me; which I study, not +without success, to sweep almost altogether out of my head. One +good is still possible to me in Life, one only: To screw a +little more work out of myself, my miserable, despicable, yet +living, acting, and so far imperial and celestial _self;_ and +this, God knows, is difficulty enough without any foreign one! + +You ask after _Cromwell:_ ask not of him; he is like to drive +me mad. There he lies, shining clear enough to me, nay glowing, +or painfully burning; but far down; sunk under two hundred +years of Cant, Oblivion, Unbelief, and Triviality of every kind: +through all which, and to the top of all which, what mortal +industry or energy will avail to raise him! A thousand times I +have rued that my poor activity ever took that direction. The +likelihood still is that I may abandon the task undone. I have +bored through the dreariest mountains of rubbish; I have visited +Naseby Field, and how many other unintelligible fields and +places; I have &c., &c.:--alas, what a talent have I for getting +into the Impossible! Meanwhile my studies still proceed; I even +take a ghoulish kind of pleasure in raking through these old +bone-houses and burial-aisles now; I have the strangest +fellowship with that huge Genius of DEATH (universal president +there), and catch sometimes, through some chink or other, +glimpses into blessed _ulterior_ regions,--blessed, but as yet +altogether _silent._ There is no use of writing of things past, +unless they can be made in fact things present: not yesterday at +all, but simply today and what it holds of fulfilment and of +promises is _ours:_ the dead ought to bury their dead, ought +they not? In short, I am very unfortunate, and deserve your +prayers,--in a quiet kind of way! If you lose tidings of me +altogether, and never hear of me more,--consider simply that I +have gone to my natal element, that the Mud Nymphs have sucked me +in; as they have done several in their time! + +Sterling was here about the time your Letters to him came: your +American reprint of his pieces was naturally gratifying him +much.* He seems getting yearly more restless; necessitated to +find an outlet for himself, unable as yet to do it well. I think +he will now write Review articles for a while; which craft is +really, perhaps, the one he is fittest for hitherto. I love +Sterling: a radiant creature; but very restless;--incapable +either of rest or of effectual motion: aurora borealis and sheet +lightning; which if it could but _concentrate_ itself, as I +[say] always--!--We had much talk; but, on the whole, even +his talk is not much better for me than silence at present. +_Me miserum!_ + +-------- +* "The Poetical Works of John Sterling," Philadelphia, 1842. +-------- + +Directly about the time of Sterling's departure came Alcott, some +two weeks after I had heard of his arrival on these shores. He +has been twice here, at considerable length; the second time, +all night. He is a genial, innocent, simple-hearted man, of much +natural intelligence and goodness, with an air of rusticity, +veracity, and dignity withal, which in many ways appeals to one. +The good Alcott: with his long, lean face and figure, with his +gray worn temples and mild radiant eyes; all bent on saving the +world by a return to acorns and the golden age; he comes before +one like a kind of venerable Don Quixote, whom nobody can even +laugh at without loving!.... + +My poor Wife is still weak, overshadowed with sorrow: her loss +is great, the loss almost as of the widow's mite; for except her +good Mother she had almost no kindred left; and as for friends-- +they are not rife in this world.--God be thanked withal they are +not entirely non-extant! Have I not a Friend, and Friends, +though they too are in sorrow? Good be with you all. + + --T. Carlyle. + + +By far the valuablest thing that Alcott brought me was the +Newspaper report of Emerson's last Lectures in New York. Really +a right wholesome thing; radiant, fresh as the _morning;_ a +thing _worth_ reading; which accordingly I clipped from the +Newspaper, and have in a state of assiduous circulation to the +comfort of many.--I cannot bid you quit the _Dial,_ though it, +too, alas, is Antinomian somewhat! _Perge, perge,_ nevertheless. +--And so now an end. + + --T. C. + + + +LXXVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 29 August, 1842 + +My Dear. Emerson,--This, morning your new Letter, of the 15th +August, has arrived;* exactly one fortnight old: thanks to the +gods and steam-demons! I already, perhaps six weeks ago, +answered your former Letter,--acknowledging the manna-gift of the +L51, and other things; nor do I think the Letter can have been +lost, for I remember putting it into the Post-Office myself. +Today I am on the eve of an expedition into Suffolk, and full of +petty business: however, I will throw you one word, were it only +to lighten my own heart a little. You are a kind friend to me, +and a precious;--and when I mourn over the impotence of Human +Speech, and how each of us, speak or write as he will, has to +stand _dumb,_ cased up in his own unutterabilities, before his +unutterable Brother, I feel always as if Emerson were the man I +could soonest _try_ to speak with,--were I within reach of him! +Well; we must be content. A pen is a pen, and worth something; +though it expresses about as much of a _man's_ meaning perhaps as +the stamping of a hoof will express of a horse's meaning; a very +poor expression indeed! + +--------- +* This letter of 15th August is missing. +--------- + +Your bibliopolic advice about Cromwell or my next Book shall be +carefully attended, if I live ever to write another Book! But I +have again got down into primeval Night; and live alone and mute +with the _Manes,_ as you say; uncertain whether I shall ever +more see day. I am partly ashamed of myself; but cannot help +it. One of my grand difficulties I suspect to be that I cannot +write _two Books at once;_ cannot be in the seventeenth century +and in the nineteenth at one and the same moment; a feat which +excels even that of the Irishman's bird: "Nobody but a bird can +be in two places at once!" For my heart is sick and sore in +behalf of my own poor generation; nay, I feel withal as if the +one hope of help for it consisted in the possibility of new +Cromwells and new Puritans: thus do the two centuries stand +related to me, the seventeenth _worthless_ except precisely in so +far as it can be made the nineteenth; and yet let anybody try +that enterprise! Heaven help me.--I believe at least that I +ought _to hold my tongue;_ more especially at present. + +Thanks for asking me to write you a word in the _Dial._ Had such +a purpose struck me long ago, there have been many things passing +through my head,--march-marching as they ever do, in long drawn, +scandalous Falstaff-regiments (a man ashamed to be seen passing +through Coventry with such a set!)--some one of which, snatched +out of the ragged rank, and dressed and drilled a little, might +perhaps fitly have been saved from Chaos, and sent to the _Dial._ +In future we shall be on the outlook. I love your _Dial,_ and +yet it is with a kind of shudder. You seem to me in danger of +dividing yourselves from the Fact of this present Universe, in +which alone, ugly as it is, can I find any anchorage, and soaring +away after Ideas, Beliefs, Revelations, and such like,--into +perilous altitudes, as I think; beyond the curve of perpetual +frost, for one thing! I know not how to utter what impression +you give me; take the above as some stamping of the fore-hoof. +Surely I could wish you _returned_ into your own poor nineteenth +century, its follies and maladies, its blind or half-blind, but +gigantic toilings, its laughter and its tears, and trying to +evolve in some measure the hidden Godlike that lies in it;--that +seems to me the kind of feat for literary men. Alas, it is so +easy to screw one's self up into high and ever higher altitudes +of Transcendentalism, and see nothing under one but the +everlasting snows of Himmalayah, the Earth shrinking to a Planet, +and the indigo firmament sowing itself with daylight stars; easy +for _you,_ for me: but whither does it lead? I dread always, To +inanity and mere injuring of the lungs!--"Stamp, Stamp, Stamp!"-- +Well, I do believe, for one thing, a man has no right to say to +his own generation, turning quite away from it, "Be damned!" It +is the whole Past and the whole Future, this same cotton-spinning, +dollar-hunting, canting and shrieking, very wretched generation +of ours. Come back into it, I tell you;--and so for the present +will "stamp" no more.... + +Adieu, my friend; I must not add a word more. My Wife is out on +a visit; it is to bring her back that I am now setting forth for +Suffolk. I hope to see Ely too, and St. Ives, and Huntingdon, +and various _Cromwelliana._ My blessings on the Concord +Household now and always. Commend me expressly to your Wife and +your Mother. Farewell, dear friend. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXIX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 15 October, 1842 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I am in your debt for at least two letters +since I sent you any word. I should be well content to receive +one of these stringent epistles of bark and steel and mellow wine +with every day's post, but as there is no hope that more will be +sent without my writing to signify that these have come, I hereby +certify that I love you well and prize all your messages. I read +with special interest what you say of these English studies, and +I doubt not the Book is in steady progress again. We shall see +what change the changed position of the author will make in the +book. The first _History_ expected its public; the second is +written to an expecting people. The tone of the first was +proud,--to defiance; we will see if applauses have mitigated the +master's temper. This time he has a hero, and we shall have a +sort of standard to try, by the hero who fights, the hero who +writes. Well; may grand and friendly spirits assist the work in +all hours; may impulses and presences from that profound world +which makes and embraces the whole of humanity, keep your feet on +the Mount of Vision which commands the Centuries, and the book +shall be an indispensable Benefit to men, which is the surest +fame. Let me know all that can be told of your progress in it. +You shall see in the last _Dial_ a certain shadow or mask of +yours, "another Richmond," who has read your lectures and +profited thereby.* Alcott sent me the paper from London, but I +do not know the name of the writer. + +As for Alcott, you have discharged your conscience of him +manfully and knightly; I absolve you well... He is a great man +and was made for what is greatest, but I now fear that he has +already touched what best he can, and through his more than a +prophet's egotism, and the absence of all useful reconciling +talents, will bring nothing to pass, and be but a voice in the +wilderness. As you do not seem to have seen in him his pure and +noble intellect, I fear that it lies under some new and denser +clouds. + +-------- +* An article on Cromwell, in the _Dial_ for October, 1842. +-------- + +For the _Dial_ and its sins, I have no defence to set up. We +write as we can, and we know very little about it. If the +direction of these speculations is to be deplored, it is yet a +fact for literary history, that all the bright boys and girls in +New England, quite ignorant of each other, take the world so, and +come and make confession to fathers and mothers,--the boys that +they do not wish to go into trade, the girls that they do not +like morning calls and evening parties. They are all religious, +but hate the churches; they reject all the ways of living of +other men, but have none to offer in their stead. Perhaps, one +of these days, a great Yankee shall come, who will easily do the +unknown deed. + +The booksellers have sent me accounts lately, but--I know not +why--no money. Little and Brown from January to July had sold +very few books. I inquired of them concerning the bill of +exchange on Fraser's Estate, which you mention, and they said it +had not been returned to them, but only some information, as I +think, demanded by Fraser's administrator, which they had sent, +and, as they heard nothing again, they suppose that it is allowed +and paid to you. Inform me on this matter. + +Munroe & Co. allow some credits, but charge more debits for +binding, &c., and also allege few sales in the hard times. I +have got a good friend of yours, a banking man, to promise that +he will sift all the account and see if the booksellers have kept +their promises. But I have never yet got all the papers in +readiness for him. I am looking to see if I have matter for new +lectures, having left behind me last spring some half-promises in +New York. If you can remember it, tell me who writes about +Loyola and Xavier in the _Edinburgh._ Sterling's papers--if he +is near you--are all in Mr. Russell's hands.* I played my part +of Fadladeen with great rigor, and sent my results to Russell, +but have not now written to J. S. + +Yours, + R.W.E. + +---------- +* Mr. A.L. Russell, who had been instrumental in procuring the +American edition of Sterling's _Poetical Works._ +--------- + + + + +LXXX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 19 November, 1842 + +My Dear Emerson,--Your Letter finds me here today; busied with +many things, but not likely to be soon more at leisure; +wherefore I may as well give myself the pleasure of answering it +on the spot. The Fraser Bill by Brown and Little has come all +right; the Dumfries Banker apprises me lately that he has got +the cash into his hands. Pray do not pester yourself with these +Bookseller unintelligibilities: I suppose their accounts are all +reasonably correct, the cheating, such as it is, done according +to rule: what signifies it at any rate? I am no longer in any +vital want of money; alas, the want that presses far heavier on +me is a want of faculty, a want of _sense;_ and the feeling of +that renders one comparatively very indifferent to money! I +reflect many times that the wealth of the Indies, the fame of ten +Shakespeares or ten Mahomets, would at bottom do me no good at +all. Let us leave these poor slaves of the Ingot and slaves +of the Lamp to their own courses,--within a _certain_ extent +of halter! + +What you say of Alcott seems to me altogether just. He is a man +who has got into the Highest intellectual region,--if that be the +Highest (though in that too there are many stages) wherein a man +can believe and discern for himself, without need of help from +any other, and even in opposition to all others: but I consider +him entirely unlikely to accomplish anything considerable, except +some kind of crabbed, semi-perverse, though still manful +existence of his own; which indeed is no despicable thing. +His "more than prophetic egoism,"--alas, yes! It is of such +material that Thebaid Eremites, Sect-founders, and all manner of +cross-grained fanatical monstrosities have fashioned themselves, +--in very _high,_ and in the highest regions, for that matter. +Sect-founders withal are a class I do not like. No truly great +man, from Jesus Christ downwards, as I often say, ever founded a +Sect,--I mean wilfully intended founding one. What a view must a +man have of this Universe, who thinks "_he_ can swallow it all," +who is not doubly and trebly happy that he can keep it from +swallowing him! On the whole, I sometimes hope we have now done +with Fanatics and Agonistic Posture-makers in this poor world: +it will be an immense improvement on the Past; and the "New +Ideas," as Alcott calls them, will prosper greatly the better on +that account! The old gloomy Gothic Cathedrals were good; but +the great blue Dome that hangs over all is better than any +Cologne one.--On the whole, do not tell the good Alcott a word of +all this; but let him love me as he can, and live on vegetables +in peace; as I, living _partly_ on vegetables, will continue to +love him! + +The best thing Alcott did while he staid among us was to +circulate some copies of your _Man the Reformer._* I did not get +a copy; I applied for one, so soon as I knew the right fountain; +but Alcott, I think, was already gone. And now mark,--for this I +think is a novelty, if you do not already know it: Certain +Radicals have reprinted your Essay in Lancashire, and it is +freely circulating there, and here, as a cheap pamphlet, with +excellent acceptance so far as I discern. Various Newspaper +reviews of it have come athwart me: all favorable, but all too +shallow for sending to you. I myself consider it a _truly +excellent_ utterance; one of the best words you have ever +spoken. Speak many more such. And whosoever will distort them +into any "vegetable" or other crotchet,--let it be at his own +peril; for the word itself is _true;_ and will have to make +itself a _fact_ therefore; though not a distracted _abortive_ +fact, I hope! _Words_ of that kind are not born into Facts in +the _seventh month;_ well if they see the light full-grown (they +and their adjuncts) in the _second century;_ for old Time is a +most deliberate breeder!--But to speak without figure, I have +been very much delighted with the clearness, simplicity, quiet +energy and veracity of this discourse; and also with the fact of +its spontaneous appearance here among us. The prime mover of the +Printing, I find, is one Thomas Ballantyne, editor of a +Manchester Newspaper, a very good, cheery little fellow, once +a Paisley weaver as he informs me,--a great admirer of all +worthy things. + +---------- +* "A Lecture read before the Mechanics' Apprentices' Library +Association, Boston, January 25, 1841." +---------- + +My paper is so fast failing, let me tell you of the writer on +Loyola. He is a James Stephen, Head Under-Secretary of the +Colonial Office,--that is to say, I believe, real governor of the +British Colonies, so far as they have any governing. He is of +Wilberforce's creed, of Wilberforce's kin; a man past middle +age, yet still in full vigor; reckoned an enormous fellow for +"despatch of business," &c., especially by Taylor (_van +Artevelde_) and others who are with him or under him in Downing +Street.... I regard the man as standing on the confines of Genius +and Dilettantism,--a man of many really good qualities, and +excellent at the despatch of business. There we will leave +him. --A Mrs. Lee of Brookline near you has made a pleasant +Book about Jean Paul, chiefly by excerpting.* I am sorry to +find Gunderode & Co. a decided weariness!** Cromwell--Cromwell? +Do not mention such a word, if you love me! And yet--Farewell, +my Friend, tonight! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +I will apprise Sterling before long: he is at Falmouth, and +well; urging me much to start a Periodical here! + +Gambardella promises to become a real Painter; there is a glow +of real fire in the wild southern man: next to no _articulate_ +intellect or the like, but of inarticulate much, or I mistake. +He has tried to paint _me_ for you; but cannot, he says! + +--------- +* "Life of Jean Paul Frederic Richter. Compiled from various +Sources. Together with his Autobiography. Translated from the +German." In Two Volumes. Boston, 1842. This book, which is one +of the best in English concerning Jean Paul, was the work of the +late Mrs. Thomas (Eliza Buckminster) Lee. + +** In the _Dial,_ for January, 1842, is an article by Miss Fuller +on "Bettine Brentano and Gunderode,"--a decided weariness. The +Canoness Gunderode was a friend of Bettine's, older and not much +wiser than herself. +--------- + + + + +LXXXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 11 March, 1848 + +Dear Emerson,--I know not whose turn it is to write; though a +suspicion has long attended me that it was yours, and above all +an indisputable wish that you would do it: but this present is a +cursory line, all on business,--and as usual all on business of +my own. + +I have finished a Book, and just set the Printer to it; one +solid volume (rather bigger than one of the _French Revolution_ +Volumes, as I compute); it is a somewhat fiery and questionable +"Tract for the Times," _not_ by a Puseyite, which the terrible +aspect of things here has forced from me,--I know not whether as +preliminary to _Oliver_ or not; but it had gradually grown to be +the preliminary of anything possible for me: so there it is +written; and I am a very sick, but withal a comparatively very +free man. The Title of the thing is to be _Past and Present:_ +it is divided into Four Books, "Book I. Proem," "Book II. The +Ancient Monk," "Book III. The Modern Worker," and "Book IV. +Horoscope" (or some such thing):--the size of it I guessed +at above. + +The practical business, accordingly, is: How to cut out that New +York scoundrel, who fancies that because there is no gallows it +is permitted to steal? I have a distinct desire to do that;-- +altogether apart from the money to be gained thereby. A friend's +goodness ought not to be frustrated by a scoundrel destitute of +gallows.--You told me long since how to do the operation; and +here, according to the best way I had of fitting your scheme into +my materials, is my way of attempting it. + +The Book will not be out here for six good weeks from this date; +it could be kept back for a week or two longer, if that were +indispensable: but I hope it may not. In three weeks, half of +it will be printed; I, in the meanwhile, get a correct +manuscript Copy of the latter half made ready: joining the +printed sheets and this manuscript, your Bookseller will have a +three weeks' start of any rival, if I instantly despatch the +Parcel to him. Will this do? this with the announcement of the +Title as given above? Pray write to me straightway, and say. +Your answer will be here before we can publish; and the Packet +of Proof-sheets and Manuscript may go off whether there be word +from you or none.--And so enough of _Past and Present._ And +indeed enough of all things, for my haste is excessive in +these hours. + +The last _Dial_ came to me about three weeks ago _as a +Post-Letter,_ charged something like a guinea of postage, if +I remember; so it had to be rejected, and I have not yet seen +that Number; but will when my leeway is once brought up a little +again. The two preceding Numbers were, to a marked extent, more +like life than anything I had seen before of the _Dial._ There +was not indeed anything, except the Emersonian Papers alone, +which I know by the first ring of them on the tympanum of the +mind, that I properly speaking _liked;_ but there was much that +I did not dislike, and did half like; and I say, "_I fausto +pede;_ that will decidedly do better!" By the bye, it were as +well if you kept rather a strict outlook on Alcott and his +English _Tail,_--I mean so far as we here have any business with +it. Bottomless imbeciles ought not to be seen in company with +Ralph Waldo Emerson, who has already men listening to him on this +side of the water. The "Tail" has an individual or two of that +genus,--and the rest is mainly yet undecided. For example, I +knew old --- myself; and can testify, if you will believe me, +that few greater blockheads (if "blockhead" may mean "exasperated +imbecile" and the ninth part of a thinker) broke the world's +bread in his day. Have a care of such! I say always to myself, +--and to you, which you forgive me. + +Adieu, my dear Emerson. May a good Genius guide you; for you +are _alone, alone;_ and have a steep pilgrimage to make,-- +leading _high,_ if you do not slip or stumble! + +Ever your affectionate, + T. Carlyle + + + +LXXXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 1 April, 1843 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Along with this Letter there will go from +Liverpool, on the 4th instant, the promised Parcel, complete Copy +of the Book called _Past and Present,_ of which you already had +two simultaneous announcements.* The name of the Steam Packet, I +understand, is the "Britannia." I have addressed the Parcel to +the care of "Messrs. Little and Brown, Booksellers, Boston," with +your name atop: I calculate it will arrive safe enough. + +--------- +* The letter making the second announcement, being very similar +to the preceding, is omitted. +--------- + +About one hundred pages of the Manuscript Copy have proved +superfluous, the text being there also in a printed shape; I had +misestimated the Printer's velocity; I was anxious too that +there should be no failure as to time. The Manuscript is very +indifferent in that section of it; the damage therefore is +smaller: your press-corrector can acquaint himself with the +_hand,_ &c. by means of it. A poor young governess, confined to +a horizontal posture, and many sad thoughts, by a disease of the +spine, was our artist in that part of the business: her writing +is none of the distinctest; but it was a work of Charity to give +it her. I hope the thing is all as correct as I could make it. +I do not bethink me of anything farther I have to add in the way +of explanation. + +In fact, my prophecy rather is at present that the gibbetless +thief at New York, will beat us after all! Never mind if be do. +To say truth, I myself shall almost be glad: there has been a +botheration in this anxious arrangement of parts correcting of +scrawly manuscript copies of what you never wished to read more, +and insane terror withal of having your own Manuscript burnt or +lost,--that has exceeded my computation. Not to speak of this +trouble in which I involve you, my Friend; which, I truly +declare, makes me ashamed! True one _is_ bound to resist the +Devil in all shapes; if a man come to steal from you, you will +put on what locks and padlocks are at hand, and not on the whole +say, "Steal, then!" But if the locks prove insufficient, and the +thief do break through,--that side of the alternative also will +suit you very well; and, with perhaps a faint prayer for gibbets +when they are necessary, you will say to him, next time, "_Macte +virtute,_ my man." + +All is in a whirl with me here today; no other topic but this +very poor one can be entered upon. I hope for a letter from your +own hand soon, and some news about still more interesting matters. + +Adieu, my Friend; I feel still as if, in several senses, you +stood alone with me under the sky at present!* + +----------- +* The signature to this letter has been cut off. +----------- + + + + +LXXXIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 29 April, 1843 + +My Dear Carlyle,--It is a pleasure to set your name once more at +the head of a sheet. It signifies how much gladness, how much +wealth of being, that the good, wise, man-cheering, man-helping +friend, though unseen, lives there yonder, just out of sight. +Your star burns there just below our eastern horizon, and fills +the lower and upper air with splendid and splendescent auroras. +By some refraction which new lenses or else steamships shall +operate, shall I not yet one day see again the disk of benign +Phosphorus? It is a solid joy to me, that whilst you work for +all, you work for me and with me, even if I have little to write, +and seldom write your name. + +Since I last wrote to you, I found it needful, if only for the +household's sake, to set some new lectures in order, and go to +new congregations of men. I live so much alone, shrinking almost +cowardly from the contact of worldly and public men, that I need +more than others to quit home sometimes, and roll with the river +of travelers, and live in hotels. I went to Baltimore, where I +had an invitation, and read two lectures on New England. On my +return, I stopped at Philadelphia, and, my Course being now grown +to four lectures, read them there. At New York, my snowball was +larger, and I read five lectures on New England. 1. Religion; +2. Trade; 3. Genius, Manners and Customs; 4. Recent literary +and spiritual influences from abroad; 5. Domestic spiritual +history.--Perhaps I have not quite done with them yet, but may +make them the block of a new and somewhat larger structure for +Boston, next winter. The newspaper reports of them in New York +were such offensive misstatements, that I could not send you, as +I wished, a sketch. Between my two speeches at Baltimore, I went +to Washington, thirty-seven miles, and spent four days. The two +poles of an enormous political battery, galvanic coil on coil, +self-increased by series on series of plates from Mexico to +Canada, and from the sea westward to the Rocky Mountains, here +meet and play, and make the air electric and violent. Yet one +feels how little, more than how much, man is represented there. +I think, in the higher societies of the Universe, it will turn +out that the angels are molecules, as the devils were always +Titans, since the dulness of the world needs such mountainous +demonstration, and the virtue is so modest and concentrating. + +But I must not delay to acknowledge the arrival of your Book. It +came ten or eleven days ago, in the "Britannia," with the three +letters of different dates announcing it.--I have read the +superfluous hundred pages of manuscript, and find it only too +popular. Beside its abundance of brilliant points and proverbs, +there is a deep, steady tide taking in, either by hope or by +fear, all the great classes of society,--and the philosophic +minority also, by the powerful lights which are shed on the +phenomenon. It is true contemporary history, which other books +are not, and you have fairly set solid London city aloft, afloat +in bright mirage in the air. I quarrel only with the popular +assumption, which is perhaps a condition of the Humor itself, +that the state of society is a new state, and was not the same +thing in the days of Rabelais and of Aristophanes, as of Carlyle. +Orators always allow something to masses, out of love to their +own art, whilst austere philosophy will only know the particles. +This were of no importance, if the historian did not so come to +mix himself in some manner with his erring and grieving nations, +and so saddens the picture; for health is always private and +original, and its essence is in its unmixableness.--But this +Book, with all its affluence of wit, of insight, and of daring +hints, is born for a longevity which I will not now compute.--In +one respect, as I hinted above, it is only too good, so sure of +success, I mean, that you are no longer secure of any respect to +your property in our freebooting America. + +You must know that the cheap press has, within a few months, made +a total change in our book markets. Every English book of any +name or credit is instantly converted into a newspaper or coarse +pamphlet, and hawked by a hundred boys in the streets of all of +our cities for 25, 18, or 12 cents; Dickens's Notes for 12 +cents, _Blackwood's Magazine_ for 18 cents, and so on. Three or +four great New York and Philadelphia printing-houses do this +work, with hot competition. One prints Bulwer's novel yesterday, +for 35 cents; and already, in twenty-four hours, another has a +coarser edition of it for 18 cents, in all thoroughfares.--What +to do with my sealed parcel of manuscripts and proofs? No +bookseller would in these perilous circumstances offer a dollar +for my precious parcel. I inquired of the lawyers whether I +could not by a copyright protect my edition from piracy until an +English copy arrived, and so secure a sale of a few weeks. They +said, no; yet advised the taking a certificate of copyright, +that we might try the case if we wished. After much consulting +and balancing for a few hours, I decided to print, as heretofore, +on our own account, an edition, but cheap, to make the temptation +less, to retail at seventy-five cents. I print fifteen hundred +copies, and announce to the public that it is your edition, and +all good men must buy this. I have written to the great +Reprinters, namely to Park Benjamin, and to the Harpers, of New +York, to request their forbearance; and have engaged Little and +Brown to publish, because, I think, they have something more of +weight with Booksellers, and are a little less likely to be +invaded than Munroe. If we sell a thousand copies at seventy-five +cents, it will only yield you about two hundred dollars; if we +should be invaded, we can then afford to sell the other five +hundred copies at twenty-five cents, without loss. In thus +doing, I involve you in some risk; but it was the best course +that occurred.--Hitherto, the _Miscellanies_ have not been +reprinted in the cheap forms; and in the last year, James Munroe +& Co. have sold few copies; all books but the cheapest being +unsold in the hard times; something has however accrued to your +credit there. J.M. & Co. fear that, if the new book is pirated +at New York and the pirate prospers, instantly the _Miscellanies_ +will be plundered. We will hope better, or at least exult +in that which remains, to wit, a Worth unplunderable, yet +infinitely communicable. + +I have hardly space left to say what I would concerning the +_Dial._ I heartily hoped I had done with it, when lately our +poor, good, publishing Miss Peabody,... wrote me that its +subscription would not pay its expenses (we all writing for +love). But certain friends are very unwilling it should die, and +I a little unwilling, though very unwilling to be the life of it, +as editor. And now that you are safely through your book, and +before the greater Sequel rushes to its conclusion, send me, I +pray you, that short chapter which hovers yet in the limbo of +contingency, in solid letters and points. Let it be, if that is +readiest, a criticism on the _Dial,_ and this too Elysian race, +not blood, and yet not ichor.--Let Jane Carlyle be on my part, +and, watchful of his hours, urge the poet in the golden one. I +think to send you a duplicate of the last number of the _Dial_ by +Mr. Mann,* who with his bride (sister of the above-mentioned Miss +Peabody) is going to London and so to Prussia. He is little +known to me, but greatly valued as a philanthropist in this +State. I must go to work a little more methodically this summer, +and let something grow to a tree in my wide straggling shrubbery. +With your letters came a letter from Sterling, who was too noble +to allude to his books and manuscript sent hither, and which +Russell all this time has delayed to print; I know not why, but +discouraged, I suppose, in these times by booksellers. I must +know precisely, and write presently to J.S. + +Farewell. + R.W. Emerson** + +----------- +* The late Horace Mann. + +** The following passages from Emerson's Diary relating to _Past +and Present_ seem to have been written a few days after the +preceding letter:--"How many things this book of Carlyle gives us +to think! It is a brave grappling with the problem of the times, +no luxurious holding aloof, as is the custom of men of letters, +who are usually bachelors and not husbands in the state, but +Literature here has thrown off his gown and descended into the +open lists. The gods are come among us in the likeness of men. +An honest Iliad of English woes. Who is he that can trust +himself in the fray? Only such as cannot be familiarized, but +nearest seen and touched is not seen and touched, but remains +inviolate, inaccessible, because a higher interest, the politics +of a higher sphere, bring him here and environ him, as the +Ambassador carries his country with him. Love protects him from +profanation. What a book this in its relation to English +privileged estates! How shall Queen Victoria read this? how the +Primate and Bishops of England? how the Lords? how the Colleges? +how the rich? and how the poor? Here is a book as full of +treason as an egg is full of meat, and every lord and lordship +and high form and ceremony of English conservatism tossed like a +football into the air, and kept in the air with merciless +rebounds and kicks, and yet not a word in the book is punishable +by statute. The wit has eluded all official zeal, and yet these +dire jokes, these cunning thrusts,--this flaming sword of +cherubim waved high in air illuminates the whole horizon and +shows to the eyes of the Universe every wound it inflicts. Worst +of all for the party attacked, it bereaves them beforehand of +all sympathy by anticipating the plea of poetic and humane +conservation and impressing the reader with the conviction that +Carlyle himself has the truest love for everything old and +excellent, and a genuine respect for the basis of truth in those +whom he exposes. Gulliver among the Lilliputians... + +"Carlyle must write thus or nohow, like a drunken man who can +run, but cannot walk. What a man's book is that! no prudences, +no compromises, but a thorough independence. A masterly +criticism on the times. Fault perhaps the excess of importance +given to the circumstance of today. The poet is here for this, +to dwarf and destroy all merely temporary circumstance, and to +glorify the perpetual circumstance of men, e.g. dwarf British +Debt and raise Nature and social life. + +"But everything must be done well once; even bulletins and +almanacs must have one excellent and immortal bulletin and +almanac. So let Carlyle's be the immortal newspaper." +---------- + + + + +LXXXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +27 August, 1843 + +Dear Emerson,--The bearer of this is Mr. Macready, our celebrated +Actor, now on a journey to America, who wishes to know you. In +the pauses of a feverish occupation which he strives honestly to +make a noble one, this Artist, become once more a man, would like +well to meet here and there a true American man. He loves Heroes +as few do; and can recognize them, you will find, whether they +have on the _Cothurnus_ or not. I recommend him to you; bid +you forward him as you have opportunity, in this department of +his pilgrimage. + +Mr. Macready's deserts to the English Drama are notable here to +all the world; but his dignified, generous, and every-way +honorable deportment in private life is known fully, I believe, +only to a few friends. I have often said, looking at him as a +manager of great London theatres, "This Man, presiding over the +unstablest, most chaotic province of English things, is the one +public man among us who has dared to take his stand on what he +understood to be _the truth,_ and expect victory from that: he +puts to shame our Bishops and Archbishops." It is literally so. + +With continued kind wishes, yours as of old. + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 October, 1843 + +My Dear Friend,--I seize the occasion of having this morsel of +paper for twenty-five pounds sterling from the booksellers to +send you, (and which fail not to find enclosed, as clerks say,) +to inquire whether you still exist in Chelsea, London, and what +is the reason that my generous correspondent has become dumb for +weary months. I must go far back to resume my thread. I think +in April last I received your Manuscript, &c. of the Book, which +I forthwith proceeded to print, after some perplexing debate with +the booksellers, as I fully informed you in my letter of April or +beginning of May. Since that time I have had no line or word +from you. I must think that my letter did not reach you, or that +you have written what has never come to me. I assure myself that +no harm has befallen you, not only because you do not live in a +corner, and what chances in your dwelling will come at least +to my ears, but because I have read with great pleasure the +story of Dr. Francia,* which gave the best report of your health +and vivacity. + +---------- +* Carlyle's article on Dr. Francia in the _Foreign Quarterly +Review,_ No. 62. Reprinted in his _Miscellanies._ +---------- + +I wrote you in April or May an account of the new state of things +which the cheap press has wrought in our book market, and +specially what difficulties it put in the way of our edition of +_Past and Present._ For a few weeks I believed that the letters +I had written to the principal New York and Philadelphia +booksellers, and the Preface, had succeeded in repelling the +pirates. But in the fourth or fifth week appeared a mean edition +in New York, published by one Collyer (an unknown person and +supposed to be a mask of some other bookseller), sold for twelve +and one half cents, and of this wretched copy several thousands +were sold, whilst our seventy-five cents edition went off slower. +There was no remedy, and we must be content that there was no +expense from our edition, which before September had paid all its +cost, and since that time has been earning a little, I believe. +I am not fairly entitled to an account of the book from the +publishers until the 1st of January.... I have never yet done +what I have thought this other last week seriously to do, namely, +to charge the good and faithful E.P. Clark, a man of accounts as +he is a cashier in a bank, with the total auditing and analyzing +of these accounts of yours. My hesitation has grown from the +imperfect materials which I have to offer him to make up so long +a story. But he is a good man, and, do you know it? a Carlylese +of that intensity that I have often heard he has collected a sort +of album of several volumes, containing illustrations of every +kind, historical, critical, &c., to the _Sartor._ I must go to +Boston and challenge him. Once when I asked him, he seemed +willing to assume it. No more of accounts tonight. + +I send you by this ship a volume of translations from Dante, by +Doctor Parsons of Boston, a practising dentist and the son of a +dentist. It is his gift to you. Lately went Henry James to +you with a letter from me. He is a fine companion from his +intelligence, valor, and worth, and is and has been a very +beneficent person as I learn. He carried a volume of poems from +my friend and nearest neighbor, W. Ellery Channing, whereof give +me, I pray you, the best opinion you can. I am determined he +shall be a poet, and you must find him such.* I have too many +things to tell you to begin at the end of this sheet, which after +all this waiting I have been compelled to scribble in a corner, +with company waiting for me. Send me instant word of yourself +if you love me, and of those whom you love, and so God keep you +and yours. + + --R. Waldo Emerson + +---------- +* In the second number of the _Dial,_ in October, 1840, Emerson +had published, under the title of "New Poetry," an article warmly +commending Mr. Channing's then unpublished poems. +---------- + + + + +LXXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 31 October, 1843 + +My Dear Emerson,--It is a long weary time since I have had the +satisfaction of the smallest dialogue with you. The blame is all +my own; the reasons would be difficult to give,--alas, they are +properly no-reasons, children not of _Something,_ but of mere +Idleness, Confusion, Inaction, Inarticulation, of _Nothing_ in +short! Let us leave them there, and profit by the hour which +yet is. + +I ran away from London into Bristol and, South Wales, when the +heats grew violent, at the end of June. South Wales, North +Wales, Lancashire, Scotland: I roved about everywhere seeking +some Jacob's-pillow on which to lay my head, and dream of things +heavenly;--yes, that at bottom was my modest prayer, though I +disguised it from myself and the result was, I could find no +pillow at all; but sank into ever meaner restlessness, blacker +and blacker biliary gloom, and returned in the beginning of +September thoroughly eclipsed and worn out, probably the weariest +of all men living under the sky. Sure enough I have a fatal +talent of converting all Nature into Preternaturalism for myself: +a truly horrible Phantasm-Reality it is to me; what of heavenly +radiances it has, blended in close neighborhood, in intimate +union, with the hideousness of Death and Chaos;--a very ghastly +business indeed! On the whole, it is better to hold one's peace +about it. I flung myself down on sofas here,--for my little Wife +had trimmed up our little dwelling-place into quite glorious +order in my absence, and I had only to lie down: there, in +reading books, and other make-believe employments, I could at +least keep silence, which was an infinite relief. Nay, +gradually, as indeed I anticipated, the black vortexes and +deluges have subsided; and now that it is past, I begin to feel +myself better for my travels after all. For one thing, +articulate speech having returned to me,--you see what use I make +of it. + +On the table of the London Library, voted in by some unknown +benefactor whom I found afterwards to be Richard Milnes, there +lay one thing highly gratifying to me: the last two Numbers of +the _Dial._ It is to be one of our Periodicals henceforth; the +current Number lies on the Table till the next arrive; then the +former goes to the Binder; we have already, in a bound volume, +all of it that Emerson has had the editing of. This is right. +Nay, in Edinburgh, and indeed wherever ingenuous inquisitive +minds were met with, I have to report that the said Emerson could +number a select and most loving public; select, and I should say +fast growing: for good and indifferent reasons it may behove the +man to assure himself of this. Farther, to the horror of poor +Nickerson (Bookseller Fraser's Successor), a certain scoundrel +interloper here has reprinted _Emerson's Essays_ on grayish +paper, to be sold at two shillings,--distracting Nickerson with +the fear of change! I was glad at this, if also angry: it +indicates several things. Nickerson has taken his measures, will +reduce the price of his remaining copies; indeed, he informs me +the best part of his edition was already sold, and he has even +some color of money due from England to Emerson through me! With +pride enough will I transmit this mournful, noble peculium: and +after that, as I perceive, such chivalrous international doings +must cease between us. _Past and Present,_ some one told me, +was, in spite of all your precautions, straightway sent forth in +modest gray, and your benevolent speculation ruined. Here too, +you see, it is the same. Such chivalries, therefore, are now +impossible; for myself I say, "Well, let them cease; thank God +they once were, the Memory of that can never cease with us!" + +In this last Number of the _Dial_ which by the bye your +Bookseller never forwarded to me, I found one little Essay, a +criticism on myself,* which, if it should do me mischief, may the +gods forgive you for! It is considerably the most dangerous +thing I have read for some years. A decided likeness of myself +recognizable in it, as in the celestial mirror of a friend's +heart; but so enlarged, exaggerated, all _transfigured,_--the +most delicious, the most dangerous thing! Well, I suppose I must +try to assimilate it also, to turn it also to good, if I be able. +Eulogies, dyslogies, in which one finds no features of one's own +natural face, are easily dealt with; easily left unread, as +stuff for lighting fires, such is the insipidity, the wearisome +_non_entity of pabulum like that: but here is another sort of +matter! "The beautifulest piece of criticism I have read for +many a day," says every one that speaks of it. May the gods +forgive you!--I have purchased a copy for three shillings, and +sent it to my Mother: one of the _indubitablest_ benefits I +could think of in regard to it. + +--------- +* A criticism by Emerson of _Past and Present,_ in the _Dial_ +for July, 1843. It embodies a great part of the extract +from Emerson's Diary given in a preceding note, and is well +worth reading in full for its appreciation of Carlyle's powers +and defects. +--------- + +There have been two friends of yours here in these very days: +Dr. Russell, just returning from Paris; Mr. Parker, just bound +thither.* We have seen them rather oftener than common, Sterling +being in town withal. They are the best figures of strangers we +have had for a long time; possessions, both of them, to fall in +with in this pilgrimage of life. Russell carries friendliness in +his eyes, a most courteous, modest, intelligent man; an English +intelligence too, as I read, the best of it lying unspoken, not +as a logic but as an instinct. Parker is a most hardy, compact, +clever little fellow, full of decisive utterance, with humor and +good humor; whom I like much. They shine like suns, these two, +amid multitudes of watery comets and tenebrific constellations, +too sorrowful without such admixture on occasion! + +------------ +* Dr. Le Baron Russell; Theodore Parker. +------------ + +As for myself, dear Emerson, you must ask me no questions till-- +alas, till I know not when! After four weary years of the most +unreadable reading, the painfulest poking and delving, I have +come at last to the conclusion--that I must write a Book on +Cromwell; that there is no rest for me till I do it. This point +fixed, another is not less fixed hitherto, That a Book on +Cromwell is _impossible._ Literally so: you would weep for me +if you saw how, between these two adamantine certainties, I am +whirled and tumbled. God only knows what will become of me in +the business. Patience, Patience! + +By the bye, do you know a "Massachusetts Historical Society," and +a James Bowdoin, seemingly of Boston? In "Vol. II. third series" +of their _Collections,_ lately I met with a disappointment almost +ludicrous. Bowdoin, in a kind of dancing, embarrassed style, +gives long-winded, painfully minute account of certain precious +volumes, containing "Notes of the Long Parliament," which now +stand in the New York Library; poises them in his assaying +balance, speculates, prophesies, inquires concerning them: to me +it was like news of the lost Decades of Livy. Good Heavens, it +soon became manifest that these precious Volumes are nothing +whatever but a wretched broken old dead manuscript copy of part +of our printed _Commons Journals!_ printed since 1745, and known +to all barbers! If the Historical Society desired it, any Member +of Parliament could procure them the whole stock, _Lords and +Commons,_ a wheelbarrowful or more, with no cost but the +carriage. Every Member has the right to demand a copy, and few +do it, few will let such a mass cross their door-threshold! This +of Bowdoin's is a platitude of some magnitude.--Adieu, dear +Emerson. Rest not, haste not; you have work to do. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 17 November, 1843 + +Dear Emerson,--About this time probably you will be reading a +Letter I hurried off for you by Dr. Russell in the last steamer; +and your friendly anxieties will partly be set at rest. Had I +kept silence so very long? I knew it was a long while; but my +vague remorse had kept no date! It behoves me now to write again +without delay; to certify with all distinctness that I have +safely received your Letter of the 30th October, safely the Bill +for L25 it contained;--that you are a brave, friendly man, of +most serene, beneficient way of life; and that I--God help me!-- + +By all means appoint this Mr. Clark to the honorary office of +Account-keeper--if he will accept it! By Parker's list of +questions from him, and by earlier reminiscences recalled on that +occasion, I can discern that he is a man of lynx eyesight, of an +all-investigating curiosity: if he will accept this sublime +appointment, it will be the clearest case of elective affinity. +Accounts to you must be horrible; as they are to me: indeed, I +seldom read beyond the _last_ line of them, if I can find the +last; and one of the insupportabilities of Bookseller Accounts +is that nobody but a wizard, or regular adept in such matters, +can tell where the last line, and final net result of the whole +accursed babblement, is to be found! By all means solicit +Clark;--at all events, do you give it up, I pray you, and let the +Booksellers do their own wise way. It really is not material; +let the poor fellows have length of halter. Every new Bill from +America comes to me like a kind of heavenly miracle; a reaping +where I never sowed, and did not expect to reap: the quantity of +it is a thing I can never bring in question.--For your English +account with Nickerson I can yet say nothing more; perhaps about +Newyear's-day the poor man will enable me to say something. I +hear however that the Pirate has sold off, or nearly so, his +Two-shillings edition of the _Essays,_ and is preparing to print +another; this, directly in the teeth of Cash and double-entry +book-keeping, I take to be good news. + +James is a very good fellow, better and better as we see him +more. Something shy and skittish in the man; but a brave +heart intrinsically, with sound, earnest sense, with plenty +of insight and even humor. He confirms an observation of mine, +which indeed I find is hundreds of years old, that a stammering +man is never a worthless one. Physiology can tell you why. It +is an excess of delicacy, excess of sensibility to the presence +of his fellow-creature, that makes him stammer. Hammond l'Estrange +says, "Who ever heard of a stammering man that was a fool?" Really +there is something in that.--James is now off to the Isle of Wight; +will see Sterling at Ventnor there; see whether such an Isle or +France will suit better for a winter residence. + +W.E. Channing's _Poems_ are also a kind gift from you. I have +read the pieces _you had cut up for me:_ worthy indeed of +reading! That Poem _on Death_ is the utterance of a valiant, +noble heart, which in rhyme or prose I shall expect more news of +by and by. But at bottom "Poetry" is a most suspicious affair +for me at present! You cannot fancy the oceans of Twaddle that +human Creatures emit upon me, in these times; as if, when the +lines had a jingle in them, a Nothing could be Something, and the +point were gained! It is becoming a horror to me,--as all speech +without meaning more and more is. I said to Richard Milnes, "Now +in honesty what is the use of putting your accusative _before_ +the verb, and otherwise entangling the syntax; if there really +is an image of any object, thought, or thing within you, for +God's sake let me have it the _shortest_ way, and I will so +cheerfully excuse the _omission_ of the jingle at the end: +cannot I do without that!"--Milnes answered, "Ah, my dear fellow, +it is because we have no thought, or almost none; a little +thought goes a great way when you put it into rhyme!" Let a man +try to the very uttermost to _speak_ what he means, before +_singing_ is had recourse to. Singing, in our curt English +speech, contrived expressly and almost exclusively for "despatch +of business," is terribly difficult. Alfred Tennyson, alone of +our time, has proved it to be possible in some measure. If +Channing will persist in melting such obdurate speech into music +he shall have my true wishes,--my augury that it will take an +enormous _heat_ from him!--Another Channing,* whom I once saw +here, sends me a Progress-of-the-Species Periodical from New +York. _Ach Gott!_ These people and their affairs seem all +"melting" rapidly enough, into thaw-slush or one knows not what. +Considerable madness is visible in them. _Stare super antiquas +vias:_ "No," they say, "we cannot stand, or walk, or do any good +whatever there; by God's blessing, we will fly,--will not you!-- +here goes!" And their _flight,_ it is as the flight of the +unwinged,--of oxen endeavoring to fly with the "wings" of an ox! +By such flying, universally practised, the "ancient ways" are +really like to become very deep before long. In short, I am +terribly sick of all that;--and wish it would stay at home at +Fruitland, or where there is good pasture for it. Friend +Emerson, alone of all voices, out of America, has sphere-music in +him for me,--alone of them all hitherto; and is a prophecy and +sure dayspring in the East; immeasurably cheering to me. God +long prosper him; keep him duly apart from that bottomless +hubbub which is not, at all cheering! And so ends my Litany for +this day. + +-------- +* The Reverend William Henry Channing. +-------- + +The Cromwell business, though I punch daily at it with all manner +of levers, remains immovable as Ailsa Crag. Heaven alone knows +what I shall do with it. I see and say to myself, It is +heroical; Troy Town was probably not a more heroic business; +and this belongs to thee, to thy own people,--must it be dead +forever?--Perhaps yes,--and kill me too into the bargain. Really +I think it very shocking that we run to Greece, to Italy, to &c., +&c., and leave all at home lying buried as a nonentity. Were I +absolute Sovereign and Chief Pontiff here, there should be a +study of the Old _English_ ages first of all. I will pit Odin +against any Jupiter of them; find Sea-kings that would have +given Jason a Roland for his Oliver! We are, as you sometimes +say, a book-ridden people,--a phantom-ridden people.--All this +small household is well; salutes you and yours with love old and +new. Accept this hasty messenger; accept my friendliest +farewell, dear Emerson. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 December, 1843 + +My Dear Friend,--I have had two good letters from you, and it is +fully my turn to write, so you shall have a token on this latest +day of the year. I rejoice in this good will you bear to so many +friends of mine,--if they will go to you, you must thank +yourself. Best when you are mutually contented. I wished lately +I might serve Mr. Macready, who sent me your letter.--I called on +him and introduced him to Sam G. Ward, my friend and the best man +in the city, and, besides all his personal merits, a master of +all the offices of hospitality. Ward was to keep himself +informed of Macready's times, and bring me to him when there was +opportunity. But he stayed but a few days in Boston, and, Ward +said, was in very good hands, and promised to see us when he +returns by and by. I saw him in Hamlet, but should much prefer +to see him as Macready. + +I must try to entice Mr. Macready out here into my pines and +alder bushes. Just now the moon is shining on snow-drifts, four, +five, and six feet high, but, before his return, they will melt; +and already this my not native but ancestral village, which I +came to live in nearly ten years ago because it was the quietest +of farming towns, and off the road, is found to lie on the +directest line of road from Boston to Montreal, a railroad is +a-building through our secretest woodlands, and, tomorrow morning, +our people go to Boston in two hours instead of three, and, next +June, in one. This petty revolution in our country matters was +very odious to me when it began, but it is hard to resist the joy +of all one's neighbors, and I must be contented to be carted like +a chattel in the cars and be glad to see the forest fall. This +rushing on your journey is plainly a capital invention for our +spacious America, but it is more dignified and man-like to walk +barefoot.--But do you not see that we are getting to be +neighbors? a day from London to Liverpool; twelve or eleven to +Boston; and an hour to Concord; and you have owed me a visit +these ten years. + +I mean to send with your January _Dial_ a copy of the number for +Sterling, as it contains a review of his tragedy and poems, by +Margaret Fuller. I have not yet seen the article, and the lady +affirms that it is very bad, as she was ill all the time she was +writing; but I hope and believe better. She, Margaret Fuller, +is an admirable person, whose writing gives feeble account of +her. But I was to say that I shall send this _Dial_ for J.S. to +your care, as I know not the way to the Isle of Wight. + +Enclosed in this letter I send a bill of exchange for L32 8s. 2d. +payable by Baring & Co. It happens to represent an exact balance +on Munroe's books, and that slow mortal should have paid it +before. I have not yet got to Clark, I who am a slow mortal, but +have my eye fixed on him. Remember me and mine with kindest +salutations to your wife and brother. + +Ever yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +LXXXIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 31 January, 1844 + +Dear Emerson, Some ten days ago came your Letter with a new Draft +of L32 and odd money in it: all safe; the Draft now gone into +the City to ripen into gold and silver, the Letter to be +acknowledged by some hasty response now and here. America, I say +to myself looking at these money drafts, is a strange place; the +highest comes out of it and the lowest! Sydney Smith is singing +dolefully about doleful American repudiation, "_dis_owning of the +soft impeachment"; and here on the other hand is an American +man, in virtue of whom America has become definable withal as a +place from which fall heavenly manna-showers upon certain men, at +certain seasons of history, when perhaps manna-showers were not +the unneedfulest things!--We will take the good and the evil, +here as elsewhere, and heartily bless Heaven. + +But now for the Draft at the top of this leaf. One Colman,* a +kind of Agricultural Missionary, much in vogue here at present, +has given it me; it is Emerson's, the net produce hitherto (all +but two cents) of _Emerson's Essays._ I enclose farther the +Bookseller's hieroglyph papers; unintelligible as all such are; +but sent over to you for scrutiny by the expert. I gather only +that there are some Five Hundred and odd of the dear-priced +edition sold, some Two Hundred and odd still to sell, which the +Bookseller says are (in spite of pirates) slowly selling; and +that the half profit upon the whole adventure up to this date has +been L24 15s. 11d. sterling,--equal, as I am taught, at $4.88 per +pound sterling, to $121.02, for which, all but the cents, here is +a draft on Boston, payable at sight. Pray have yourself +straightway _paid;_ that if there be any mistake or delay I may +rectify it while time yet is.--I add, for the intelligence of the +Bookseller-Papers, that Fraser, with whom the bargain originally +stood, was succeeded by Nickerson; these are the names of the +parties. And so, dear Friend; accept this munificent sum of +Money; and expect a blessing with it if good wishes from the +heart of man can give one. So much for that. + +--------- +* The Reverend Henry Colman. +--------- + +Did you receive a Dumfries Newspaper with a criticism in it? The +author is one Gilfillan, a young Dissenting Minister in Dundee; +a person of great talent, ingenuousness, enthusiasm, and other +virtues; whose position as a Preacher of bare old Calvinism +under penalty of death sometimes makes me tremble for him. He +has written in that same Newspaper about all the notablest men of +his time; Godwin, Corn-law Elliott and I know not all whom: if +he publish the Book, I will take care to send it you.* I saw the +man for the first time last autumn, at Dumfries; as I said, his +being a Calvinist Dissenting Minister, economically fixed, and +spiritually with such germinations in him, forces me to be very +reserved to him. + +----------- +* The sketches were published the next year in a volume under +the title of _The Gallery of Literary Portraits._ +----------- + +John Sterling's _Dial_ shall be forwarded to Ventnor in the Isle +of Wight, whenever it arrives. He was here, as probably I told +you, about two months ago, the old unresting brilliantly +radiating man. He is now much richer in money than he was, and +poorer by the loss of a good Mother and good Wife: I understand +he is building himself a brave house, and also busy writing a +poem. He flings too much "sheet-lightning" and unrest into me +when we meet in these low moods of mine; and yet one always +longs for him back again: "No doing with him or without him," +the dog! + +My thrice unfortunate Book on Cromwell,--it is a real descent to +Hades, to Golgotha and Chaos! I feel oftenest as if it were +possibler to die one's self than to bring it into life. Besides, +my health is in general altogether despicable, my "spirits" equal +to those of the ninth part of a dyspeptic tailor! One needs to +be able to go on in all kinds of spirits, in climate sunny or +sunless, or it will never do. The planet Earth, says Voss,--take +four hexameters from Voss: + +Journeys this Earth, her eye on a Sun, through the heavenly spaces; +Joyous in radiance, or joyless by fits and swallowed in tempests; +Falters not, alters not, equal advancing, home at the due hour: +So thou, weather-proof, constant, may, equal with day, March! + +I have not a moment more tonight;--and besides am inclined to +write unprofitables if I persist. Adieu, my friend; all +blessings be with you always. + +Yours ever truly, + T. Carlyle + + + + +XC. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 29 February, 1844 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I received by the last steamer your letter, and +its prefixed order for one hundred and twenty-one dollars, which +order I sent to Ward, who turned it at once into money. Thanks, +dear friend, for your care and activity, which have brought me +this pleasing and most unlooked for result. And I beg you, if +you know any family representative of Mr. Fraser, to express my +sense of obligation to that departed man. I feel a kindness not +without some wonder for those good-natured five hundred +Englishmen who could buy and read my miscellany. I shall not +fail to send them a new collection, which I hope they will like +better. My faith in the Writers, as an organic class, increases +daily, and in the possibility to a faithful man of arriving at +statements for which he shall not feel responsible, but which +shall be parallel with nature. Yet without any effort I fancy I +make progress also in the doctrine of Indifferency, and am +certain and content that the truth can very well spare me, and +have itself spoken by another without leaving it or me the worse. +Enough if we have learned that music exists, that it is proper to +us, and that we cannot go forth of it. Our pipes, however shrill +and squeaking, certify this our faith in Tune, and the eternal +Amelioration may one day reach our ears and instruments. It is a +poor second thought, this literary activity. + +Perhaps I am not made obnoxious to much suffering, but I have had +happy hours enough in gazing from afar at the splendors of the +Intellectual Law, to overpay me for any pains I know. Existence +may go on to be better, and, if it have such insights, it never +can be bad. You sometimes charge me with I know not what sky- +blue, sky-void idealism. As far as it is a partiality, I fear I +may be more deeply infected than you think me. I have very +joyful dreams which I cannot bring to paper, much less to any +approach to practice, and I blame myself not at all for my +reveries, but that they have not yet got possession of my house +and barn. But I shall not lose my love for books. I only +worship Eternal Buddh in the retirements and intermissions of +Brahma.--But I must not egotize and generalize to the end of my +sheet, as I have a message or two to declare. + +I enclose a bill of exchange on the Barings for thirty-six +pounds; which is the sum of two recent payments of Munroe and of +Little and Brown, whereof I do not despair you shall yet have +some account in booksellers' figures. I have got so far with +Clark as to have his consent to audit the accounts when I shall +get energy and time enough to compile them out of my ridiculous +Journal. Munroe begs me to say what possibly I have already +asked for him, that, when the _History of Cromwell_ is ready to +be seen of men, you will have an entire copy of the Manuscript +taken, and sent over to us. Then will he print a cheap edition +such as no one will undersell, and secure such a share of profit +to the author as the cheap press allows. Perhaps only thirty or +forty pounds would make it worth while to take the trouble. A +valued friend of mine wishes to know who wrote (perhaps three +years ago) a series of metaphysical articles in _Blackwood_ on +Consciousness. Can you remember and tell me? And now I commend +you to the good God, you and your History, and the true kind wife +who is always good to the eager Yankees, and am yours heartily, + + --R.W. Emerson + + + +XCI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 8 April, 1844 + +Dear Emerson,--Till within five minutes of the limit of my time, +I had forgotten that this was the 3d of the Month; that I +had a Letter to write acknowledging even money! Take the +acknowledgment, given in all haste, not without a gratitude that +will last longer: the Thirty-six pounds and odd shillings came +safe in your Letter, a new unlooked-for Gift. America, I think, +is like an amiable family teapot; you think it is all out long +since, and lo, the valuable implement yields you another cup, and +another! Many thanks to you, who are the heart of America to me. + +Republishing for one's friend's sake, I find on consulting my +Bookseller, is out here; we have Pirates waiting for every +American thing of mark, as you have for every British; to the +tender mercies of these, on both sides, I fancy the business must +be committed. They do good too; as all does, even carrion: +they send you _faster_ abroad, if the world have any use for +you;--oftenest it only thinks it has. Your _Essays,_ the Pirated +_Essays,_ make an ugly yellow tatter of a Pamphlet, price 1s. +6d.; but the edition is all sold, I understand: and even +Nickerson has not entirely ceased to sell. The same Pirate who +pounced upon you made an attempt the other day on my poor _Life +of Schiller,_ but I put the due spoke in his wheel. They have +sent me Lowell's _Poems;_ they are bringing out Jean Paul's +Life, &c., &c.; the hungry _Canaille._ It is strange that men +should feel themselves so entirely at liberty to steal, simply +because there is no gallows to hang them for doing it. Your new +Book will be eagerly waited for by that class of persons; and +also by another class which is daily increasing here. + +The only other thing I am "not to forget" is that of the _Essay +on Consciousness_ in _Blackwood._ The writer of those Papers is +one Ferrier, a Nephew of the Edinburgh Miss Ferrier who wrote +_Marriage_ and some other Novels; Nephew also of Professor +Wilson (Christopher North), and married to one of his daughters. +A man of perhaps five-and-thirty; I remember him in boyhood, +while he was boarded with an Annandale Clergyman; I have seen +him since manhood, and liked him well: a solid, square-visaged, +dark kind of man, more like your Theodore Parker than any mutual +specimen I can recollect. + +He got the usual education of an Edinburgh Advocate; but found +no practice at the Bar, nor sought any with due anxiety, I +believe; addicted himself to logical meditations;--became, +the other year, Professor of Universal History, or some +such thing, in the Edinburgh University, and lectures with +hardly any audience: a certain _young_ public wanted me +to be that Professor there, but I knew better,--Is this +enough about Ferrier? + +I will not add another word; the time being _past,_ +irretrievable except by half-running! + +Write us your Book; and be well and happy always!* + +------- +* The signature has been cut off. +------- + + + + +XCII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 5 August, 1844 + +Dear Emerson,--There had been a long time without direct news +from you, till four days ago your Letter arrived. This day I +understand to be the ultimate limit of the American Mail; +yesterday, had it not been Sunday, would have been the limit: I +write a line, therefore, though in very great haste. + +Poor Sterling, even I now begin to fear, is in a very bad way. +He had two successive attacks of spitting of blood, some three +months ago or more; the second attack of such violence, and his +previous condition then so weak, that the Doctor as good as gave +up hope,--the poor Patient himself had from the first given it +up. Our poor Friend has had so many attacks of that nature, and +so rapidly always rallied from them, I gave no ear to these +sinister prognostics; but now that I see the summer influences +passing over him without visible improvement, and our good +weather looking towards a close without so much strength added as +will authorize even a new voyage to Madeira;--I too am at last +joining in the general discouragement; all the sadder to me that +I shut it out so long. Sir James Clark, our best-accredited +Physician for such diseases, declares that Life, for certain +months, may linger, with great pain; but that recovery is not to +be expected. Great part of the lungs, it appears, is totally +unserviceable for respiration; from the remainder, especially in +times of coughing, it is with the greatest difficulty that breath +enough is obtained. Our poor Patient passes the night in a +sitting posture; cannot lie down: that fact sticks with me ever +since I heard it! He is very weak, very pale; still "writes a +great deal daily"; but does not wish to see anybody; declines +to "see even Carlyle," who offered to go to him. His only +Brother, Anthony Sterling, a hardy soldier, lately withdrawn from +the Army, and settled in this quarter, whom we often communicate +with, is about going down to the Isle of Wight this week: he saw +John four days ago, and brings nothing but bad news,--of which +indeed this removal of his to the neighborhood of the scene is a +practical testimony. The old Father, a Widower for the last two +years, and very lonely and dispirited, seems getting feebler and +feebler: he was here yesterday: a pathetic kind of spectacle to +us. Alas, alas! But what can be said? I say Nothing; I have +written only one Note to Sterling: I feel it probable that I +shall never see him more,--nor his like again in this world. His +disease, as I have from of old construed it, is a burning of him +up by his own fire. The restless vehemence of the man, +struggling in all ways these many years to find a legitimate +outlet, and finding, except for transitory, unsatisfactory +coruscations, none, has undermined its Clay Prison in the weakest +point (which proves to be the lungs), and will make outlet +_there._ My poor Sterling! It is an old tragedy; and very +stern whenever it repeats itself of new. + +Today I get answer about Alfred Tennyson: all is right on that +side. Moxon informs me that the Russell Books and Letter arrived +duly, and were duly forwarded and safely received; nay, farther, +that Tennyson is now in Town, and means to come and see me. Of +this latter result I shall be very glad: Alfred is one of the +few British or Foreign Figures (a not increasing number I think!) +who are and remain beautiful to me;--a true human soul, or some +authentic approximation thereto, to whom your own soul can say, +Brother!--However, I doubt he will not come; he often skips me, +in these brief visits to Town; skips everybody indeed; being a +man solitary and sad, as certain men are, dwelling in an element +of gloom,--carrying a bit of Chaos about him, in short, which he +is manufacturing into Cosmos! + +Alfred is the son of a Lincolnshire Gentleman Farmer, I think; +indeed, you see in his verses that he is a native of "moated +granges," and green, fat pastures, not of mountains and their +torrents and storms. He had his breeding at Cambridge, as if for +the Law or Church; being master of a small annuity on his +Father's decease, he preferred clubbing with his Mother and some +Sisters, to live unpromoted and write Poems. In this way he +lives still, now here, now there; the family always within reach +of London, never in it; he himself making rare and brief visits, +lodging in some old comrade's rooms. I think he must be under +forty, not much under it. One of the finest-looking men in the +world. A great shock of rough dusty-dark hair; bright-laughing +hazel eyes; massive aquiline face, most massive yet most +delicate; of sallow-brown complexion, almost Indian-looking; +clothes cynically loose, free-and-easy;--smokes infinite tobacco. +His voice is musical metallic,--fit for loud laughter and +piercing wail, and all that may lie between; speech, and +speculation free and plenteous: I do not meet, in these late +decades, such company over a pipe!--We shall see what he will +grow to. He is often unwell; very chaotic,--his way is through +Chaos and the Bottomless and Pathless; not handy for making out +many miles upon. (O Paper!) + +I trust there is now joy in place of pain in the House at +Concord, and a certain Mother grateful again to the Supreme +Powers! We are all in our customary health here, or nearly so; +my Wife has been in Lancashire, among her kindred there, for a +month lately: our swollen City is getting empty and still; we +think of trying an Autumn _here_ this time.--Get your Book ready; +there are readers ready for it! And be busy and victorious! + +Ever Yours, + T. Carlyle + +My _History_ is frightful! If I live, it is like to be +completed; but whether I shall live, and not rather be buried +alive, broken-hearted, in the Serbonian Quagmires of English +Stupidity, and so sleep beside Cromwell, often seems uncertain. +Erebus has no uglier, brutaler element. Let us say nothing of +it. Let us do it, or leave it to the Devils. _Ay de mi!_ + + + + +XCIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 1 September, 1844 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I have just learned that in an hour Mr. +Wilmer's mail-bag for London, by the "Acadia," closes, and I will +not lose the occasion of sending you a hasty line: though I had +designed to write you from home on sundry matters, which now must +wait. I send by this steamer some sheets, to the bookseller John +Chapman,--proofsheets of my new book of Essays. Chapman wrote to +me by the last steamer, urging me to send him some manuscript +that had not yet been published in America, and he thought he +could make an advantage from printing it, and even, in some +conditions, procure a copyright, and he would publish for me on +the plan of half-profits. The request was so timely, since I was +not only printing a book, but also a pamphlet (an Address to +citizens of some thirteen towns who celebrated in Concord the +negro Emancipation on 1st August last), that I came to town +yesterday, and hastened the printers, and have now sent him +proofs of all the Address, and of more than half the book. If +you can give Chapman any counsel, or save me from any nonsense by +enjoining on him careful correction, you shall. + +I looked eagerly for a letter from you by the last steamer, to +give me exact tidings of Sterling. None came; but I received a +short note from Sterling himself, which intimated that he had but +a few more days to live. It is gloomy news. I beg you will +write me everything you can relate of him, by the next mail. If +you can learn from his friends whether the packet of his +Manuscripts and printed papers, returned by Russell and sent by +me through Harnden's Express to Ventnor, arrived safely, it would +be a satisfaction. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +XCIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 29 September, 1844 + +Dear Emerson,--There should a Letter have come for you by that +Steamer; for I wrote one duly, and posted it in good time +myself: I will hope therefore it was but some delay of some +subaltern official, such as I am told occasionally chances, and +that you got the Letter after all in a day or two. It would give +you notice, more or less, up to its date, of all the points you +had inquired about there is now little to be added; except +concerning the main point, That the catastrophe has arrived there +as we foresaw, and all is ended. + +John Sterling died at his house in Ventnor on the night of +Wednesday, 18th September, about eleven o'clock; unexpectedly at +last, and to appearance without pain. His Sister-in-law, Mrs. +Maurice; had gone down to him from this place about a week +before; other friends were waiting as it were in view of him; +but he wished generally to be alone, to continue to the last +setting his house and his heart more and more in order for the +Great Journey. For about a fortnight back he had ceased to have +himself formally dressed; had sat only in his dressing-gown, but +I believe was still daily wheeled into his Library, and sat very +calmly sorting and working there. He sent me two Notes, and +various messages, and gifts of little keepsakes to my Wife and +myself: the Notes were brief, stern and loving; altogether +noble; never to be forgotten in this world. His Brother +Anthony, who had been in the Isle of Wight within call for +several weeks, had now come up to Town again; but, after about a +week, decided that he would run down again, and look. He arrived +on the Wednesday night, about nine o'clock; found no visible +change; the brave Patient calm as ever, ready to speak as ever, +--to say, in direct words which he would often do, or indirectly +as his whole speech and conduct did, "God is Great." Anthony and +he talked for a while, then took leave for the night; in +few minutes more, Anthony was summoned to the bedside, and +at eleven o'clock, as I said, the curtain dropt, and it was +all ended.--_Euge!_ + +Whether the American _Manuscripts_ had arrived I do not yet know, +but probably shall before this Letter goes; for Anthony is to +return hither on Tuesday, and I will inquire. Our Friend is +buried in Ventnor Churchyard; four big Elms overshadow the +little spot; it is situated on the southeast side of that green +Island, on the slope of steep hills (as I understand it) that +look toward the Sun, and are close within sight and hearing of +the Sea. There shall he rest, and have fit lullaby, this brave +one. He has died as a man should; like an old Roman, yet with +the Christian Bibles and all newest revelations present to him. +He refused to see friends; men whom I think he loved as well as +any,--me for one when I obliquely proposed it, he refused. He +was even a little stern on his nearest relatives when they came +to him: Do I need your help to die? Phocion-like he seemed to +feel degraded by physical decay; to feel that he ought to wrap +his mantle round him, and say, "I come, Persephoneia; it is not +I that linger!"--His Sister-in-law, Anthony's Wife, probably +about a month ago, while they were still in Wight, had begged +that she might see him yet once; her husband would be there too, +she engaged not to speak. Anthony had not yet persuaded him, +when she, finding the door half open, went in: his pale changed +countenance almost made her shriek; she stept forward silently, +kissed his brow in silence; he burst into tears. Let us speak +no more of this.--A great quantity of papers, I understand, are +left for my determination; what is to be done with them I will +sacredly endeavor to do. + +I have visited your Bookseller Chapman; seen the Proof-sheets +lying on his table; taken order that the reprint shall be well +corrected,--indeed, I am to read every sheet myself, and in that +way get acquainted with it, before it go into stereotype. +Chapman is a tall, lank youth of five-and-twenty; full of good +will, but of what other equipment time must yet try. By a little +Book of his, which I looked at some months ago, he seemed to me +sunk very deep in the dust-hole of extinct Socinianism; a +painful predicament for a man! He is not sure of saving much +copyright for you; but he will do honestly what in that respect +is doable; and he will print the Book correctly, and publish it +decently, I saying _imprimatur_ if occasion be,--and your ever- +increasing little congregation here will do with the new word +what they can. I add no more today; reserving a little nook for +the answer I hope to get two days hence. Adieu, my Friend: it +is silent Sunday; the populace not yet admitted to their beer- +shops, till the respectabilities conclude their rubric- +mummeries,--a much more audacious feat than beer! We have +wet wind at Northeast, and a sky somewhat of the dreariest:-- +Courage! a _little_ way above it reigns mere blue, and +sunshine eternally!--T.C. + +_Wednesday, October 2d._--The Letter had to wait till today, and +is still in time. Anthony Sterling, who is yet at Ventnor, +apprises me this morning that according to his and the Governess's +belief the Russell Manuscripts arrived duly, and were spoken +of more than once by our Friend.--On Monday I received from +this same Anthony a big packet by Post; it contains among +other things all your Letters to John, wrapt up carefully, and +addressed in his hand, "Emerson's Letters, to be returned through +the hands of Carlyle": they shall go towards you next week, by +Mr. James, who is about returning. Among the other Papers was +one containing seven stanzas of verse addressed to T. Carlyle, +14th September; full of love and enthusiasm;--the Friday before +his death: I was visiting the old City of Winchester that day, +among the tombs of Canutes and eldest noble ones: you may judge +how sacred the memory of those hours now is! + +I have read your Slavery Address; this morning the first _half_- +sheet, in Proof, of the _Essays_ has come: perfectly correct, +and right good reading. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +XCV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 September, 1844 +My Dear Friend,--I enclose a bill of exchange for thirty pounds +sterling which I procured in town today at $5 each pound, or +$150; so high, it seems, is the rate at present, higher, they +said, than for years. It is good booksellers' money from Little +and Brown, and James Munroe & Co., in unequal proportions. If +you wish for more accurate information and have a great deal of +patience, there is still hope that you may obtain it before +death; for I this day met E.P. Clark in Washington Street, and +he reported some progress in auditing of accounts, and said that +when presently his family should return to town for the winter, +he would see to the end of them, i.e. the accounts. + +I received with great satisfaction your letter of July, which +came by a later steamer than it was written for, but gave me +exact and solid information on what I most wished to know. May +you live forever, and may your reports of men and things be +accessible to me whilst I live! Even if, as now in Sterling's +case, the news are the worst, or nearly so, yet let whatever +comes for knowledge be precise, for the direst tragedy that is +accurately true must share the blessing of the Universe. I have +no later tidings from Sterling, and I must still look to you to +tell me what you can. I dread that the story should be short. +May you have much good to tell of him, and for many a day to +come! The sketch you drew of Tennyson was right welcome, for he +is an old favorite of mine,--I owned his book before I saw your +face;--though I love him with allowance. O cherish him with love +and praise, and draw from him whole books full of new verses yet. +The only point on which you never give precise intelligence is +your own book; but you shall have your will in that; so only +you arrive on the shores of light at last, with your mystic +freight fished partly out of the seas of time, and partly out of +the empyrean deeps. + +I have much regretted a sudden note I wrote you just before the +steamer of 1 September sailed, entreating you to cumber yourself +about my proofsheets sent to the London bookseller. I heartily +absolve you from all such vexations. Nothing could be more +inconsiderate. Mr. Chapman is undoubtedly amply competent to +ordinary correction, and I much prefer to send you my little book +in decent trim than in rags and stains and deformities more than +its own. I have just corrected and sent to the steamer the last +sheets for Mr. Chapman, who is to find English readers if he can. +I shall ask Mr. Chapman to send you a copy, for his edition will +be more correct than mine. What can I tell you better? Why even +this, that this house rejoices in a brave boy, now near three +months old. Edward we call him, and my wife calls him Edward +Waldo. When shall I show him to you? And when shall I show you +a pretty pasture and wood-lot which I bought last week on the +borders of a lake which is the chief ornament of this town, +called Walden Pond? One of these days, if I should have any +money, I may build me a cabin or a turret there high as the tree- +tops, and spend my nights as well as days in the midst of a +beauty which never fades for me. + +Yours with love, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +XCVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 3 November, 1844 + +Dear Emerson,--By the clearest law I am bound to write you a word +today, were my haste even greater than it is. The last American +fleet or ship, about the middle of last month, brought me a Draft +for Thirty Pounds; which I converted into ready cash, and have +here,--and am now your grateful debtor for, as of old. There +seems to be no end to those Boston Booksellers! I think the well +is dry; and straightway it begins to run again. Thanks to you: +--it is, I dare say, a thing you too are grateful for. We will +recognize it among the good things of this rather indifferent +world.--By the way, if that good Clark _like_ his business, let +him go on with it; but if not, stop him, poor fellow! It is to +me a matter of really small moment whether those Booksellers' +accounts be ever audited in this world, or left over to the +General Day of Audit. I myself shudder at the sight of such +things; and make my bargain here so always as to have no trade +with them, but to be _netto_ from the first. Why should I +plague poor Clark with them, if it be any plague to him? The +Booksellers will never _know_ but we examine them! The very +terror of Clark's name will be as the bark of chained Mastiff,-- +and no need for actual biting! Have due pity on the man. + +Your English volume of _Essays,_ as Chapman probably informs you +by this Post, was advertised yesterday, "with a Preface from me." +That is hardly accurate, that latter clause. My "Preface" +consists only of a certificate that the Book is correctly +printed, and sent forth by a Publisher of your appointment, whom +therefore all readers of yours ought to regard accordingly. +Nothing more. There proves, I believe, no visible real vestige +of a copyright obtainable here; only Chapman asserts that he +_has_ obtained one, and that he will take all contraveners into +Chancery,--which has a terrible sound; and indeed the Act he +founds on is of so distracted, inextricable a character, it may +mean anything and all things, and no Sergeant Talfourd whom we +could consult durst take upon him to say that it meant almost +anything whatever. The sound of "Chancery," the stereotype +character of this volume, and its cheap price, may perhaps deter +pirates,--who are but a weak body in this country as yet. I +judged it right to help in that; and impertinent, at this stage +of affairs, to go any farther. The Book is very fairly printed, +onward. at least to the Essay _New England Politics,_ where my +"perfect-copy" of the sheets as yet stops. I did not read any of +the Proofs except two; finding it quite superfluous, and a sad +waste of time to the hurried Chapman himself. I have found yet +but one error, and that a very correctable one, "narvest" for +"harvest";--no other that I recollect at present. + +The work itself falling on me by driblets has not the right +chance yet--not till I get it in the bound state, and read it all +at once--to produce its due impression on me. But I will say +already of it, It is a _sermon_ to me, as all your other +deliberate utterances are; a real _word,_ which I feel to be +such,--alas, almost or altogether the one such, in a world all +full of jargons, hearsays, echoes, and vain noises, which cannot +pass with me for _words!_ This is a praise far beyond any +"literary" one; literary praises are not worth repeating in +comparison. For the rest, I have to object still (what you will +call objecting against the Law of Nature) that we find you a +Speaker indeed, but as it were a _Soliloquizer_ on the eternal +mountain-tops only, in vast solitudes where men and their affairs +lie all hushed in a very dim remoteness; and only the man and +the stars and the earth are visible,--whom, so fine a fellow +seems he, we could perpetually punch into, and say, "Why won't +you come and help us then? We have terrible need of one man like +you down among us! It is cold and vacant up there; nothing +paintable but rainbows and emotions; come down, and you shall do +life-pictures, passions, facts,--which _transcend_ all thought, +and leave it stuttering and stammering! To which he answers that +he won't, can't, and doesn't want to (as the Cockneys have it): +and so I leave him, and say, "You Western Gymnosophist! Well, we +can afford one man for that too. But--!--By the bye, I ought to +say, the sentences are very _brief;_ and did not, in my sheet +reading, always entirely cohere for me. Pure genuine Saxon; +strong and simple; of a clearness, of a beauty--But they did +not, sometimes, rightly stick to their foregoers and their +followers: the paragraph not as a beaten ingot, but as a +beautiful square _bag of duck-shot_ held together by canvas! I +will try them again, with the Book deliberately before me.--There +are also one or two utterances about "Jesus," "immortality," and +so forth, which will produce wide-eyes here and there. I do not +say it was wrong to utter them; a man obeys his own Daemon in +these cases as his supreme law. I dare say you are a little +bored occasionally with "Jesus," &c.,--as I confess I myself am, +when I discern what a beggarly Twaddle they have made of all +that, what a greasy Cataplasm to lay to their own poltrooneries;- +-and an impatient person may exclaim with Voltaire, in serious +moments: "_Au nom de Dieu, ne me parlez plus de cet homme-la!_ +I have had enough of him;--I tell you I am alive too!" + +Well, I have scribbled at a great rate; regardless of Time's +flight!--My Wife thanks many times for M. Fuller's Book. I sent +by Mr. James a small Packet of _your_ letters--which will make +you sad to look at them! Adieu, dear friend. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +XCVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 December, 1844 + +My Dear Friend,--I have long owed you a letter and have much to +acknowledge. Your two letters containing tidings, the first of +the mortal illness, and the second of the death of Sterling, I +had no heart to answer. I had nothing to say. Alas! as in so +many instances heretofore, I knew not what to think. Life is +somewhat customary and usual; and death is the unusual and +astonishing; it kills in so far the survivor also, when it +ravishes from him friendship and the most noble and admirable +qualities. That which we call faith seems somewhat stoical and +selfish, if we use it as a retreat from the pangs this ravishment +inflicts. I had never seen him, but I held him fast; now I see +him not, but I can no longer hold him. Who can say what he yet +is and will be to me? The most just and generous can best divine +that. I have written in vain to James to visit me, or to send me +tidings. He sent me, without any note, the parcel you confided +to him, and has gone to Albany, or I know not whither. + +I have your notes of the progress of my London printing, and, at +last, the book itself. It was thoughtless in me to ask your +attention to the book at all in the proof state; the printer +might have been fully trusted with corrected printed pages before +him. Nor should Chapman have taxed you for an advertisement; +only, I doubt not he was glad of a chance to have business with +you; and, of course, was too thankful for any Preface. Thanks +to you for the kind thought of a "Notice," and for its friendly +wit. You shall not do this thing again, if I should send you any +more books. A Preface from you is a sort of banner or oriflamme, +a little too splendid for my occasion, and misleads. I fancy my +readers to be a very quiet, plain, even obscure class,--men and +women of some religious culture and aspirations, young, or else +mystical, and by no means including the great literary and +fashionable army, which no man can count, who now read your +books. If you introduce me, your readers and the literary papers +try to read me, and with false expectations. I had rather have +fewer readers and only such as belong to me. + +I doubt not your stricture on the book as sometimes unconnected +and inconsecutive is just. Your words are very gentle. I should +describe it much more harshly. My knowledge of the defects of +these things I write is all but sufficient to hinder me from +writing at all. I am only a sort of lieutenant here in the +deplorable absence of captains, and write the laws ill as +thinking it a better homage than universal silence. You +Londoners know little of the dignities and duties of country +lyceums. But of what you say now and heretofore respecting the +remoteness of my writing and thinking from real life, though I +hear substantially the same criticism made by my countrymen, I do +not know what it means. If I can at any time express the law and +the ideal right, that should satisfy me without measuring the +divergence from it of the last act of Congress. And though I +sometimes accept a popular call, and preach on Temperance or the +Abolition of Slavery, as lately on the 1st of August, I am sure +to feel, before I have done with it, what an intrusion it is into +another sphere, and so much loss of virtue in my own. Since I am +not to see you from year to year, is there never an Englishman +who knows you well, who comes to America, and whom you can send +to me to answer all my questions? Health and love and joy to you +and yours. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XCVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 January, 1845 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Carey and Hart of Philadelphia, booksellers, +have lately proposed to buy the remainder of our Boston edition +of your _Miscellanies,_ or to give you a bonus for sanctioning an +edition of the same, which they propose to publish. On inquiry, +I have found that only thirteen entire sets of four volumes +remain to us unsold; whilst we have 226 copies of Volume III., +and 243 copies of Volume IV., remaining. + +In replying to Mr. Carey, I proposed that, besides the proposed +bonus, he should buy of me these old volumes, which are not bound +but folded, at 25 cents a volume, (Monroe having roughly computed +the cost at 40 cents a volume,) but this he declines to do, and +offers fifty pounds sterling for his bonus. I decided at once to +accept his offer, thinking it a more favorable winding up of our +account than I could otherwise look for; as Mr. Carey knows much +better how to defend himself from pirates than I do. So I am to +publish that his edition is edited with your concurrence. Our +own remaining copies of entire sets I shall sell at once to +Monroe, at a reduced price, and the odd volumes I think to +dispose of by giving them a new and independent title-page. In +the circumstances of the trade here, I think Mr. Carey's offer a +very liberal one, and he is reputed in his dealings eminently +just and generous. + +My friend William Furness, who has corresponded with me on +Carey's behalf, has added now another letter to say that Mr. +Carey wishes to procure a picture of Mr. Carlyle to be engraved +for this edition. "He understands there is a good head by +Laurence, and he wishes to employ some London artist to make a +copy of it in oil or water colors, or in any way that will +suffice for the engraver; and he proposes to apply to Mr. +Carlyle for permission through Inman the American artist who is +now in England." Furness goes on to ask for my "good word" with +you in furtherance of this design. Well, I heartily hope you +will not resist so much good nature and true love; for Mr. +Furness and Mr. Griswold, and others who compose a sort +of advising committee to Mr. Carey, are sincere lovers of +yours. One more opportunity this crisis in our accounts will +give to that truest of all Carlylians, E.P. Clark, to make his +report. I called at his house two nights ago, in Boston; he +promised immediate attention, but quickly drew me aside to +his "Illustrations of Carlyle," an endless train of books, and +portfolios, and boxes of prints, in which every precious word of +that master is explained or confirmed. + +Affectionately yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +XCIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 16 February, 1845 + +Dear Emerson,--By the last Packet, which sailed on the 3d of the +month, I forgot to write to you, though already in your debt +one Letter; and there now has another Letter arrived, which on +the footing of mere business demands to be answered. I write +straightway; not knowing how the Post-Office people will +contrive the conveyance, or whether it can be sooner than by the +next Steam ship, but willing to give them a chance. + +You have made another brave bargain for me with the Philadelphia +people; to all of which I can say nothing but _"Euge! Papae!"_ +It seems to me strange, in the present state of Copyright, how my +sanction or the contrary can be worth L50 to any American +Bookseller; but so it is, to all appearance; let it be so, +therefore, with thanks and surprise. The Messrs. Carey and Lea +distinguish themselves by the beauty of their Editions; a poor +Author does not go abroad among his friends in dirty paper, full +of misprints, under their guidance; this is as handsome an item +of the business as any. As to the Portrait too, I will be as +"amiable" as heart could wish; truly it will be worth my while +to take a little pains that the kind Philadelphia Editors do once +for all get a faithful Portrait of me, since they are about it, +and so prevent counterfeits from getting into circulation. I +will endeavor to do in that matter whatsoever they require of me; +to the extent even of sitting two days for a Crayon Sketch such +as may be engraved,--though this new sacrifice of patience will +not be needed as matters are. It stands thus: there is no +Painter, of the numbers who have wasted my time and their own +with trying, that has indicated any capability of catching a true +Likeness, but one Samuel Lawrence; a young Painter of real +talent, not quite so young now, but still only struggling for +complete mastership in the management of colors. He does crayon +sketches in a way to please almost himself; but his oil +paintings, at least till within a year or two, have indicated +only a great faculty still crude in that particular. His oil +portrait of me, which you speak of, is almost terrible to behold! +It has the look of a Jotun, of a Scandinavian Demon, grim, sad, +as the angel of Death;--and the coloring is so _brick_ish, the +finishing so coarse, it reminds you withal of a flayed horse's +head! _"Dinna speak o't."_ But the preparatory crayon-sketch of +this, still in existence, is admired by some judges; poor John +Sterling bought it from the Painter, and it is now here in the +hands of his Brother, who will readily allow any authorized +person to take a drawing of it. Lawrence himself, I imagine, +would be the fittest man to employ; or your Mr. Ingham [Inman], +if he be here and a capable person: one or both of these might +superintend the Engraving of it here, and not part with the plate +till it were pronounced satisfactory. In short, I am willing to +do "anything in reason"! Only if a Portrait is to be, I confess +I should rather avoid going abroad under the hands of bunglers, +at least of bunglers sanctioned by myself. There is a Portrait +of me in some miserable farrago called _Spirit of the Age;_* a +farrago unknown to me, but a Portrait known, for poor Lawrence +brought it down to me with sorrow in his face; it professes to +be from his painting; is a "Lais _without_ the beauty" (as +Charles Lamb used to say); a flayed horse's head without the +spiritualism, good or bad,--and simply figures on my mind as a +detestability; which I had much rather never have seen. These +poor _Spirit of the Age_ people applied to me; I described +myself as "busy," &c.; shoved them off me; and this monster of +iniquity, resembling Nothing in the Earth or under it, is the +result. In short, I am willing, I am willing; and so let us not +waste another drop of ink on it at present!--On the whole, are +not you a strange fellow? You apologize as if with real pain for +"trouble" I had, or indeed am falsely supposed to have had, with +Chapman here; and forthwith engage again in correspondences, in +speculations, and negotiations, and I know not what, on my +behalf! For shame, for shame! Nay, you have done one very +ingenious thing; to set Clark upon the Boston Booksellers' +accounts: it is excellent; Michael Scott setting the Devil +to twist ropes of sand, "There, my brave one; see if you don't +find work there for a while!" I never think of this Clark +without love and laughter. Once more, _Euge!_ Chapman is fast +selling your Books here; striking off a new Five Hundred from +his Stereotypes. You are wrong as to your Public in this +Country; it is a very pretty public; extends pretty much, +I believe, through all ranks, and is a growing one,--and a truly +_aristocratic,_ being of the bravest inquiring minds we have. +All things are breaking up here, like Swedish Frost in the end of +March; _gachis epouvantable._ Deep, very serious eternal +instincts, are at work; but as yet no serious word at all that I +hear, except what reaches me from Concord at intervals. Forward, +forward! And you do not know what I mean by calling you +"unpractical," "theoretic." _0 caeca corda!_ But I have no room +for such a theme at present. + +---------- +* "A new Spirit of the Age. Edited by R.H. Horne." In Two +Volumes. London, 1844. +---------- + +The reason I tell you nothing about Cromwell is, alas, that there +is nothing to be told. I am day and night, these long months and +years, very miserable about it,--nigh broken-hearted often. Such +a scandalous accumulation of Human Stupidity in every form never +lay before on such a subject. No history of it can be written to +this wretched, fleering, sneering, canting, twaddling, God- +forgetting generation. How can you explain men to Apes by the +Dead Sea?* And I am very sickly too, and my Wife is ill all this +cold weather,--and I am sunk in the bowels of Chaos, and scarce +once in the three months or so see so much as a possibility of +ever getting out! Cromwell's own _Letters and Speeches_ I have +gathered together, and washed clean from a thousand ordures: +these I do sometimes think of bringing out in a legible shape;-- +perhaps soon. Adieu, dear friend, with blessings always. + + --T. Carlyle + +Poor Sydney Smith is understood to be dying; water on the chest; +past hope of Doctors. Alas! + +--------- +* The dwellers by the Dead Sea who were changed to apes are +referred to in various places by Carlyle. He tells the story of +the metamorphosis, which he got from the introduction to Sale's +Koran, in _Past and Present,_ Book III. Ch. 3. +--------- + + + + +C. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, June 29, 1845 + +My Dear Friend,--I grieve to think of my slackness in writing, +which suffers steamer after steamer to go without a letter. But +I have still hoped, before each of the late packets sailed, that +I should have a message to send that would enforce a letter. I +wrote you some time ago of Mr. Carey's liberal proposition in +relation to your _Miscellanies._ I wrote, of course, to Furness, +through whom it was made to me, accepting the proposition; and I +forwarded to Mr. Carey a letter from me to be printed at the +beginning of the book, signifying your good-will to the edition, +and acknowledging the justice and liberality of the publishers. +I have heard no more from them, and now, a fortnight since, the +newspaper announces the death of Mr. Carey. He died very +suddenly, though always an invalid and extremely crippled. His +death is very much regretted in the Philadelphia papers, where he +bore the reputation of a most liberal patron of good and fine +arts. I have not heard from Mr. Furness, and have thought I +should still expect a letter from him. I hope our correspondence +will stand as a contract which Mr. Carey's representatives will +feel bound to execute. They had sent me a little earlier a copy +of Mr. Sartain's engraving from their water-color copy of +Laurence's head of you. They were eager to have the engraving +pronounced a good likeness. I showed it to Sumner, and Russell, +and Theodore Parker, who have seen you long since I had, and they +shook their heads unanimously and declared that D'Orsay's profile +was much more like. + +--------- +** From the rough draft. +--------- + +I creep along the roads and fields of this town as I have done +from year to year. When my garden is shamefully overgrown with +weeds, I pull up some of them. I prune my apples and pears. I +have a few friends who gild many hours of the year. I sometimes +write verses. I tell you with some unwillingness, as knowing +your distaste for such things, that I have received so many +applications from readers and printers for a volume of poems that +I have seriously taken in hand the collection, transcription, or +scription of such a volume, and may do the enormity before New +Year's day. Fear not, dear friend, you shall not have to read +one line. Perhaps I shall send you an official copy, but I shall +appeal to the tenderness of Jane Carlyle, and excuse your +formidable self, for the benefit of us both. Where all writing +is such a caricature of the subject, what signifies whether the +form is a little more or less ornate and luxurious? Meantime, I +think to set a few heads before me, as good texts for winter +evening entertainments. I wrote a deal about Napoleon a few +months ago, after reading a library of memoirs. Now I have +Plato, Montaigne, and Swedenborg, and more in the clouds behind. +What news of Naseby and Worcester? + + + + +CI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 29 August, 1845 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter, which had been very long expected, +has been in my hand above a month now; and still no answer sent +to it. I thought of answering straightway; but the day went +by, days went by;--and at length I decided to wait till my +insupportable Burden (the "Stupidity of Two Centuries" as I call +it, which is a heavy load for one man!) were rolled off my +shoulders, and I could resume the habit of writing Letters, which +has almost left me for many months. By the unspeakable blessing +of Heaven that consummation has now arrived, about four days ago +I wrote my last word on _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches;_ and +one of the earliest uses I make of my recovered freedom is to +salute you again. The Book is nearly printed: two big volumes; +about a half of it, I think, my own; the real utterances of the +man Oliver Cromwell once more legible to earnest men. Legible +really to an unexpected extent: for the Book took quite an +unexpected figure in my hands; and is now a kind of Life of +Oliver, the best that circumstances would permit me to do:-- +whether either I or England shall be, in my time, fit for a +better, remains submitted to the Destinies at present. I have +tied up the whole Puritan Paper-Litter (considerable masses of it +still unburnt) with tight strings, and hidden it at the bottom of +my deepest repositories: there shall _it,_ if Heaven please, lie +dormant for a time and times. Such an element as I have been in, +no human tongue can give account of. The disgust of my Soul has +been great; a really _pious_ labor: worth very little when I +have done it; but the best I could do; and that is quite +enough. I feel the liveliest gratitude to the gods that I have +got out of it alive. The Book is very dull, but it is actually +legible: all the ingenious faculty I had, and ten times as much +would have been useful there, has been employed in elucidation; +in saying, and chiefly in forbearing to say,--in annihilating +continents of brutal wreck and dung: _Ach Gott!_--But in fact +you will see it by and by; and then form your own conclusions +about it. They are going to publish it in October, I find: I +tried hard to get you a complete copy of the sheets by this +Steamer; but it proves to be flatly impossible;--perhaps +luckily; for I think you would have been bothering yourself with +some new Bookseller negotiation about it; and that, as copyright +and other matters now stand, is a thing I cannot recommend. +--Enough of it now: only let all my silences and other +shortcomings be explained thereby. I am now off for the North +Country, for a snatch still at the small remnants of Summer, and +a little free air and sunshine. I am really far from well, +though I have been riding diligently for three months back, and +doing what I could to help myself. + +Very glad shall I be, my Friend, to have some new utterances from +you either in verse or in prose! What you say about the vast +_imperfection_ of all modes of utterance is most true indeed. +Let a man speak and sing, and do, and sputter and gesticulate as +he may,--the meaning of him is most ineffectually shown forth, +poor fellow; rather _indicated_ as if by straggling symbols, +than _spoken_ or visually expressed! Poor fellow! So the great +rule is, That he _have_ a good manful meaning, and then that he +take what "mode of utterance" is honestly the readiest for him.-- +I wish you would take an American Hero, one whom you really love; +and give us a History of him,--make an artistic bronze statue (in +good _words_) of his Life and him! I do indeed.--But speak of +what you will, you are welcome to me. Once more I say, No other +voice in this wide waste world seems to my sad ear to be +_speaking_ at all at present. The more is the pity for us. + +I forbid you to plague yourself any farther with those +Philadelphia or other Booksellers. If you could hinder them to +promulgate any copy of that frightful picture by Lawrence, or +indeed any picture at all, I had rather stand as a shadow than as +a falsity in the minds of my American friends: but this too we +are prepared to encounter. And as for the money of these men,-- +if they will pay it, good and welcome; if they will not pay it, +let them keep it with what blessing there may be in it! I have +your noble offices in that and in other such matters already +unforgetably sure to me; and, in real fact, that is almost +exactly the whole of valuable that could exist for me in the +affair. Adieu, dear Friend. Write to me again; I will write +again at more leisure. + +Yours always, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 15 September, 1845 + +My Dear Friend,--I have seen Furness of Philadelphia, who was, +last week, in Boston, and inquired of him what account I should +send you of the new Philadelphia edition. "Has not Mr. Carey +paid you?" he said.--No. "Then has he not paid Carlyle +directly?" No, as I believe, or I should have heard of it.-- +Furness replied, that the promised fifty pounds were sure, and +that the debt would have been settled before this time, if Mr. +Carey had lived. So as this is no longer a Three Blind +Callenders' business of Arabian Nights, I shall rest secure. I +have doubted whether the bad name which Philadelphia has gotten +in these times would not have disquieted you in this long delay. +If you have ever heard directly from Carey and Hart, you will +inform me. + +I am to read to a society in Boston presently some lectures, +--on Plato, or the Philosopher; Swedenborg, or the Mystic; +Montaigne, or the Sceptic; Shakespeare, or the Poet; Napoleon, +or the Man of the World;--if I dare, and much lecturing makes us +incorrigibly rash. Perhaps, before I end it, my list will be +longer, and the measure of presumption overflowed. I may take +names less reverend than some of these,--but six lectures I have +promised. I find this obligation usually a good spur to the +sides of that dull horse I have charge of. But many of its +advantages must be regarded at a long distance. + +I have heard nothing from you for a long time,--so may your +writing prosper the more. I wish to hear, however, concerning +you, and your house, and your studies, when there is little to +tell. The steamers come so fast--to exchange cards would not be +nothing. My wife and children and my mother are well. Peace and +love to your household. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +CIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 September, 1845 + +My Dear Friend,--I had hardly sent away my letter by the last +steamer, when yours full of good news arrived. I greet you +heartily on the achievement of your task, and the new days of +freedom obtained and deserved. Happiest, first, that you can +work, which seems the privilege of the great, and then, also, +that thereby you can come at the sweetness of victory and rest. +Yes, flee to the country, ride, run, leap, sit, spread yourself +at large; and in all ways celebrate the immense benevolence of +the Universe towards you; and never complain again of dyspepsia, +crosses, or the folly of men; for in giving you this potent +concentration, what has been withholden? I am glad with all men +that a new book is made, that the gentle creation as well as the +grosser goes ever on. Another month will bring it to me, and I +shall know the secrets of these late silent years. Welcome the +child of my friend! Why should I regret that I see you not, when +you are forced thus intimately to discover yourself beyond the +intimacy of conversation? + +But you should have sent me out the sheets by the last steamer, +or a manuscript copy of the book. I do not know but Munroe would +have printed it at once, and defied the penny press. And slow +Time might have brought in his hands a most modest reward. + +I wrote you the other day the little I had to say on affairs. +Clark, the financial Conscience, has never yet made any report, +though often he promised. Half the year he lives out of Boston, +and unless I go to his Bank I never see his face. I think he +will not die till he have disburdened himself of this piece of +arithmetic. I pray you to send me my copy of this book at the +earliest hour, and to offer my glad congratulations to Jane +Carlyle, on an occasion, I am sure, of great peace and relief to +her spirit. And so farewell. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +CIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 11 November, 1846 + +My Dear Emerson,--I have had two Letters from you since I wrote +any; the latest of them was lying here for me when I returned, +about three weeks ago; the other I had received in Scotland: it +was only the last that demanded a special answer;--which, alas, I +meant faithfully to give it, but did not succeed! With meet +despatch I made the Bookseller get ready for you a Copy of the +unpublished _Cromwell_ Book; hardly complete as yet, it was +nevertheless put together, and even some kind of odious rudiments +of a _Portrait_ were bound up with it; and the Packet inscribed +with your address was put into Wiley and Putnam's hands in time +for the Mail Steamer;--and I hope has duly arrived? If it have +not, pray set the Booksellers a-hunting. Wiley and Putnam was +the Carrier's name; this is all the indication I can give, but +this, I hope, if indeed any prove needful, will be enough. One +may hope you have the Book already in your hands, a fortnight +before this reaches you, a month before any other Copy can reach +America. In which case the Parcel, _without_ any Letter, must +have seemed a little enigmatic to you! The reason was this: I +miscounted the day of the month, unlucky that I was. Sitting +down one morning with full purpose to write at large, and +all my tools round me, I discover that it is no longer +the third of November; that it is already the _fourth,_ +and the American Mail-Packet has already lifted anchor! +Irrevocable, irremediable! Nothing remained but to wait for +the 18th;--and now, as you see, to take Time by the forelock,-- +_queue,_ as we all know, he has none. + +My visit to Scotland was wholesome for me, tho' full of sadness, +as the like always is. Thirty years mow away a Generation of +Men. The old Hills, the old Brooks and Houses, are still there; +but the Population has marched away, almost all; it is not there +any more. I cannot enter into light talk with the survivors and +successors; I withdraw into silence, and converse with the old +dumb crags rather, in a melancholy and abstruse manner.--Thank +God, my good old Mother is still there; old and frail, but still +young of heart; as young and strong _there,_ I think, as ever. +It is beautiful to see affection survive where all else is +submitting to decay; the altar with its sacred fire still +burning when the outer walls are all slowly crumbling; material +Fate saying, "_They_ are mine!"--I read some insignificant Books; +smoked a great deal of tobacco; and went moping about among the +hills and hollow water-courses, somewhat like a shade in Hades. +The Gospel which this World of Fact does preach to one differs +considerably from the sugary twaddle one gets the offer of in +Exeter-Hall and other Spouting-places! Of which, in fact, I am +getting more and more weary; sometimes really impatient. It +seems to me the reign of Cant and Spoonyism has about lasted long +enough. Alas, in many respects, in this England I too often feel +myself sorrowfully in a "minority of one";--if in the whole +world, it amount to a minority of two, that is something! These +words of Goethe often come into my mind, _"Verachtung ja Nicht- +achtung."_ Lancashire, with its Titanic Industries, with its +smoke and dirt, and brutal stupor to all but money and the five +mechanical Powers, did not excite much admiration in me; +considerably less, I think, than ever! Patience, and shuffle +the cards! + +The Book on Cromwell is not to come out till the 22d of this +month. For many weeks it has been a real weariness to me; my +hope, always disappointed, that now is the last time I shall have +any trade with it. Even since I began writing, there has been an +Engraver here, requiring new indoctrination,--poor fellow! Nay, +in about ten days it _must_ be over: let us not complain. I +feel it well to be worth _nothing,_ except for the little +fractions or intermittent fits of pious industry there really +were in it; and my one wish is that the human species would be +pleased to take it off my hands, and honestly let me hear no more +about it! If it please Heaven, I will rest awhile still, and +then try something better. + +In three days hence, my Wife and I are off to the Hampshire coast +for a winter visit to kind friends there, if in such a place it +will prosper long with us. The climate there is greatly better +than ours; they are excellent people, well affected to us; and +can be lived with, though of high temper and ways! They are the +Lord Ashburtons, in fact; more properly the younger stratum of +that house; partly a kind of American people,--who know Waldo +Emerson, among other fine things, very well! I think we are to +stay some three weeks: the bustle of moving is already begun. + +You promise us a new Book soon? Let it be soon, then. There are +many persons here that will welcome it now. To one man here it +is ever as an _articulate voice_ amid the infinite cackling and +cawing. That remains my best definition of the effect it has on +me. Adieu, my friend. Good be with you and your Household +always. _Vale._ + + --T.C. + + + + +CV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 3 January, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--I received your Letter* by the last Packet three +or four days ago: this is the last day of answering, the monthly +Packet sails towards you again from Liverpool tomorrow morning; +and I am in great pressure with many writings, elsewhither and +thither: therefore I must be very brief. I have just written to +Mr. Hart of Philadelphia; his Draft (as I judge clearly by the +Banker's speech and silence) is accepted, all right; and in +fact, means _money_ at this time: for which I have written to +thank him heartily. Do you very heartily thank Mr. Furness for +me;--Furness and various friends, as Transatlantic matters now +are, must accept a _silent_ gratitude from me. The speech of men +and American hero-worshipers is grown such a babblement: in very +truth, _silence_ is the thing that chiefly has meaning,--there +or here.... + +--------- +* Missing +--------- + +To my very great astonishment, the Book _Cromwell_ proves popular +here; and there is to be another edition very soon. Edition +with improvements--for some fifty or so of new (not _all_ +insignificant) Letters have turned up, and I must try to do +something rational with them;--with which painful operation I am +again busy. It will make the two volumes about _equal_ perhaps, +--which will be one benefit! If any American possibility lie in +this, I will take better care of it.--Alas, I have not got one +word with you yet! Tell me of your Lectures;--of all things. +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + +We returned from Hampshire exactly a week ago; never passed +six so totally idle weeks in our lives.--Better in health a +little? Perhaps. + + + + +CVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 3 February, 1848 + +Dear Emerson,--One word to you before the Packet sail;--on +business of my own, once more; in such a state of _haste_ as +could hardly be greater. The Printers are upon me, and I have +not a moment. + +Contrary to all human expectation, this Book on Cromwell proves +salable to mankind here, and a second Edition is now going +forward with all speed. The publication of the First has brought +out from their recesses a _new_ heap of Cromwell Letters;--which +have been a huge embarrassment to me; for they are highly +unimportant for most part, and do not tend to alter or materially +modify anything. Some Fifty or Sixty new Letters in all (many of +them from Printed Books that had escaped me) the great majority, +with others yet that may come in future time, I determine to +print simply as an Appendix; but several too, I think about +twenty in all, are to be fitted into the Text, chiefly in the +early part of the First Volume, as tending to bring some matters +into greater clearness there. I am busy with that even now; +sunk deep into the Dust-abysses again!--Of course I have made +what provision I could for printing a Supplement, &c. to the +possessors of the First Edition: but I find this Second will be +the _Final_ standing Edition of the Book; decidedly preferable +to the First; not to be touched by me _again,_ except on +very good cause indeed. New letters, except they expressly +contradict me, shall go at once into the back apartment, or +Appendix, in future. + +The Printers have sent me some five or six sheets, they send me +hitherto a sheet daily; but perhaps there are not above three or +two in a perfect state: so I trouble you with none of them by +this Packet. But by next Packet (3d of March), unless I hear to +the contrary, I will send you all the Sheets that are ready; and +so by the following Packets, till we are out of it;--that you, on +the scene there, may do with them once for all whatsoever you +like. If _nothing_ can be done with them, believe me I shall be +very glad of that result. But if you can so much as oblige any +honest Bookseller of your or my acquaintance by the gift of them, +let it be done; let Pirates and ravenous Bipeds of Prey +be excluded from participating: that of itself will be a +comfortable and a proper thing!--You are hereby authorized to +promulgate in any way you please, That the Second Edition will be +augmented, corrected, as aforesaid; and that Mr. (Any Son of +Adam you please to name) is, so far as I have any voice in the +matter, appointed by me, to the exclusion of all and sundry +others on what pretext soever, to print and vend the same to my +American Friends. And so it stands; and the Sheets (probably +near thirty in number) will be out with the March Packet:-- +and if nothing can come of it, I for one shall be very glad! +The Book is to be in Three Volumes now; the first ends at +p. 403, Vol. I.; the third begins at p. 155, Vol. II., of +the present edition. + +What are you doing? Write to me: how the Lectures went, how all +things went and go! We are over head and ears in Anti-Corn-Law +here; the Aristocracy struck almost with a kind of horror at +sight of that terrible Millocracy, rising like a huge hideous +Frankenstein up in Lancashire,--seemingly with boundless ready- +money in its pocket, and a very fierce humor in its stomach! To +me it is as yet almost uglier than the Aristocracy; and I will +not fire guns when this small victory is gained; I will +recommend a day of Fasting rather, that such a victory required +such gaining. + +Adieu, my Friend. Is it likely we shall meet in "Oregon," think +you? That would be a beautiful affair, on the part of the most +enlightened Nation! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 3 March, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--I must write you a word before this Packet go, +tho' my haste is very great. I received your two Newspapers +(price only twopence); by the same Ship there came, and reached +me some days later, a Letter from Mr. Everett enclosing the +_Cromwell_ portions of the same printed-matter, clipt out by +scissors; written, it appeared, by Mr. Everett's nephew; some +of whose remarks, especially his wish that I might once be in New +England, and see people "praying," amused me much! The Cotton +Letter, &c., I have now got to the bottom of; Birch's copy is in +the Museum here,--a better edition than I had. Of "Levered" and +the other small American Documents--alas, I get cartloads of the +like or better tumbled down at my door, and my chief duty is to +front them resolutely with a _shovel._ "Ten thousand tons" is +but a small estimate for the quantity of loose and indurated +lumber I have had to send sounding, on each hand of me, down, +down to the eternal deeps, never to trouble _me_ more! The +jingle of it, as it did at last get under way, and go down, was +almost my one consolation in those unutterable operations.--I am +again over head and ears; but shall be out soon: never to +return more. + +By this Packet, according to volunteer contract, there goes out +by the favor of your Chapman a number of sheets, how many I do +not exactly know, of the New Edition: Chapman First and Chapman +Second (yours and mine) have undertaken to manage the affair for +this month and for the following months;--many thanks to them +both for taking it out of my hands. What you are to do with the +Article you already know. If no other customer present himself, +can you signify to Mr. Hart of Philadelphia that the sheets are +much at his service,--his conduct on another occasion having +given him right to such an acknowledgment from me? Or at any +rate, _you_ will want a new Copy of this Book; and can retain +the sheets for that object.--Enough of them. + +From Mr. Everett I learn that your Boston Lectures have been +attended with renown enough: when are the Lectures themselves to +get to print? I read, last night, an Essay on you, by a kind of +"Young Scotland," as we might call it, in an Edinburgh Magazine; +very fond of you, but shocked that you were Antichristian:-- +really not so bad. The stupidities of men go crossing one +another; and miles down, at the bottom of all, there is a little +veinlet of sense found running at last! + +If you see Mr. Everett, will you thank him for his kind +remembrance of me, till I find leisure (as I have vainly hoped +today to do) to thank him more in form. A dignified, compact +kind of man; whom I remember with real pleasure. + +Jargon abounds in our Newspapers and Parliament Houses at +present;--with which "the present Editor," and indeed I think the +Public at large, takes little concern, beyond the regret of being +_bored_ by it. The Corn-Laws are going very quietly the way of +all deliriums; and then there will at least be one delirium +less, and we shall start upon new ones. + +Not a word more today, but my blessings and regards. God be with +you and yours always. + +Ever your affectionate, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 April, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--Your two Letters* have both come to hand, the last +of them only three days ago. One word in answer before the +Packet sail; one very hasty word, rather than none. + +----------- +* Missing. +---------- + +You have made the best of Bargains for me; once again, with the +freest contempt of trouble on my behalf; which I cannot +sufficiently wonder at! Apparently it is a fixed-idea of yours +that the Bibliopolic Genus shall not cheat me; and you are +decided to make it good. Very well: let it be so, in as far as +the Fates will. + +Certainly I will conform in all points to this Wiley-and-Putnam +Treaty, and faithfully observe the same. The London Wileys have +not yet sent me any tidings; but when they do, I will say Your +terms on the other side of the sea are the Law to us, and it is a +finished thing.--No sheets, I think, will go by this mid-month +Packet, the Printer and Bookseller were bidden not mind that: +but by the Packet of May 3d, I hope the Second Volume will go +complete; and, if the Printers make speed, almost the whole +remainder may go by the June one. There is to be a "Supplement +to the First Edition," containing all the new matter that is +_separable:_ of this too the Wileys shall have their due Copy to +reprint: it is what I could do to keep my faith with purchasers +of the First Edition here; but, on the whole, there will be no +emulating of the Second Edition except by a reprint of the whole +of it; changes great and small have had to introduce themselves +everywhere, as these new Letters were woven in.--I hope before +May 3d I shall have ascertained whether it will not be the +simplest way (as with my present light it clearly appears) to +give the sheets direct to the Wiley and Putnam here, and let +_them_ send them? In any case, the cargo shall come one way +or other. + +Furthermore,--Yes, you shall have that sun-shadow, a +Daguerreotype likeness, as the sun shall please to paint it: +there has often been talk of getting me to that establishment, +but I never yet could go. If it be possible, we will have this +also ready for the 3d of May. _Provided_ you, as you promise, go +and do likewise! A strange moment that, when I look upon your +dead shadow again; instead of the living face, which remains +unchanged within me, enveloped in beautiful clouds, and emerging +now and then into strange clearness! Has your head grown +grayish? On me are "gray hairs here and there,"--and I do "know +it." I have lived half a century in this world, fifty years +complete on the 4th of December last: that is a solemn fact +for me! Few and evil have been the days of the years of +thy servant,--few for any good that was ever done in them. +_Ay de mi!_ + +Within late weeks I have got my Horse again; go riding through +the loud torrent of vehiculatory discords, till I get into the +fields, into the green lanes; which is intrinsically a great +medicine to me. Most comfortless riding it is, with a horse of +such _kangaroo_ disposition, till I do get to the sight of my old +ever-young green-mantled mother again; but for an hour there, it +is a real blessing to me. I have company sometimes, but +generally prefer solitude, and a dialogue with the trees and +clouds. Alas, the speech of men, especially the witty-speech of +men, is oftentimes afflictive to me: "in the wide Earth," I say +sometimes with a sigh, "there is none but Emerson that responds +to me with a voice wholly human!" All "Literature" too is become +I cannot tell you how contemptible to me. On the whole, one's +blessedness is to do as Oliver: Work while the sun is up; work +_well_ as if Eternities depended on it; and then sleep,--if +under the guano-mountains of Human Stupor, if handsomely +_forgotten_ all at once, that latter is the handsome thing! I +have often thought what W. Shakespeare would say, were he to sit +one night in a "Shakespeare Society," and listen to the empty +twaddle and other long-eared melody about him there!--Adieu, my +Friend. I fear I have forgotten many things: at all events, I +have forgotten the inexorable flight of the minutes, which are +numbered out to me at present. + +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + + I think I recognize the Inspector of Wild-beasts, in the +little Boston Newspaper you send!* A small hatchet-faced, gray- +eyed, good-humored Inspector, who came with a Translated +Lafontaine; and took his survey not without satisfaction? +Comfortable too how rapidly he fathomed the animal, having just +poked him up a little. _Ach Gott!_ Man is forever interesting +to men;--and all men, even Hatchet-faces, are globular and complete! + +--------- +* This probably refers to a letter of Mr. Elizur Wright's, +describing a visit to Carlyle. +--------- + + + + +CIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 30 April, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--Here is the _Photograph_ going off for you by +Bookseller Munroe of Boston; the Sheets of _Cromwell,_ all the +second and part of the last volume, are to go direct to New York: +both Parcels by the Putnam conveyance. For Putnam has been here +since I wrote, making large confirmations of what you conveyed to +me; and large Proposals of an ulterior scope,--which will +involve you in new trouble for me. But it is trouble you will +not grudge, inasmuch as it promises to have some issue of moment; +at all events the negotiation is laid entirely into your hands: +therefore I must with all despatch explain to you the essentials +of it, that you may know what Wiley says when he writes to you +from New York. + +Mr. Putnam, really a very intelligent, modest, and reputable- +looking little fellow, got at last to sight of me about a week +ago;--explained with much earnestness how the whole origin of the +mistake about the First Edition of _Cromwell_ had lain with +Chapman, my own Bookseller (which in fact I had already perceived +to be the case); and farther set forth, what was much more +important, that he and his Partner were, and had been, ready and +desirous to _make good_ said mistake, in the amplest, most +satisfactory manner,--by the ready method of paying me _now_ +ten percent on the selling-price of all the copies of _Cromwell_ +sent into the market by them; and had (as I knew already) +covenanted with you to do so, in a clear, _bona-fide,_ and to +you satisfactory manner, in regard to that First Edition: in +consequence of which you had made a bargain with them of like +tenor in regard to the Second. To all which I could only answer, +that such conduct was that of men of honor, and would, in all +manner of respects, be satisfactory to me. Wherefore the new +Sheets of _Cromwell_ should now go by _his_ Package direct to New +York, and the other little Parcel for you he could send to +Munroe:--that as one consequence? "Yes, surely," intimated he; +but there were other consequences, of more moment, behind that. + +Namely, that they wanted (the Wiley & Putnam house did) to +publish certain other Books of mine, the List of which I do not +now recollect; under similar conditions: viz. that I was to +certify, in a line or two prefixable to each Book, that I had +read it over in preparation for their Printer, and did authorize +them to print and sell it;--in return for which Ten percent on +the sale-price (and all manner of facilities, volunteered to +convince even Clark of Boston, the Lynx-eyed Friend now busy for +me looking through millstones, that all was straight, and said +Ten percent actually paid on every copy sold); This was Putnam's +Offer, stated with all transparency, and in a way not to be +misunderstood by either of us. + +To which I answered that the terms seemed clear and square and +every way good, and such as I could comply with heartily,--so far +as I was at liberty, but not farther. Not farther: for example, +there was Hart of Philadelphia (I think the Wileys do not want +the _Miscellanies_), there were Munroe, Little and Brown, &c.;-- +in short, there was R.W. Emerson, who knew in all ways how far I +was free and not free, and who would take care of my integrity +and interest at once, and do what was just and prudent; and to +_him_ I would refer the whole question, and whatever he engaged +for, that and no other than that I would do. So that you see how +it is, and what a coil you have again got into! Mr. Putnam would +have had some "Letter," some "exchange of Letters," to the effect +above-stated: but I answered, "It was better we did not write at +all till the matter was clear and liquid with you, and then we +could very swiftly write,--and act. I would apprise you how the +matter stood, and expect your answer, and bid you covenant with +Mr. Wiley what you found good, prompt I to fulfil whatever _you_ +undertook for me."--This _is_ a true picture of the affair, the +very truest I can write in haste; and so I leave it with you-- +_Ach Gott!_ + +If your Photograph succeed as well as mine, I shall be almost +_tragically_ glad of it. This of me is far beyond all pictures; +really very like: I got Laurence the Painter to go with me, and +he would not let the people off till they had actually made a +likeness. My Wife has got another, which she asserts to be much +"more amiable-looking," and even liker!* O my Friend, it is a +strange Phantasmagory of a Fact, this huge, tremendous World of +ours, Life of ours! Do you bethink you of Craigenputtock, and +the still evening there? I could burst into tears, if I had that +habit: but it is of no use. The Cromwell business will be ended +about the end of May,--I do hope! + +You say not a word of your own affairs: I have vaguely been +taught to look for some Book shortly;--what of it? We are well, +or tolerably well, and the summer is come: adieu. Blessings on +you and yours. + + --T.C. + +---------- +* The engraved portrait in the first volume of this +Correspondence is from a photograph taken from this daguerrotype. +---------- + + + + +CX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 14 May, 1846 + +Dear Friend,--I daily expect the picture, and wonder--so long as +I have wished it--I had never asked it before. I was in Boston +the other day, and went to the best reputed Daguerreotypist, but +though I brought home three transcripts of my face, the house- +mates voted them rueful, supremely ridiculous. I must sit again; +or, as true Elizabeth Hoar said, I must not sit again, not being +of the right complexion which Daguerre and iodine delight in. I +am minded to try once more, and if the sun will not take me, I +must sit to a good crayon sketcher, Mr. Cheney, and send you +his draught.... + +Good rides to you and the longest escapes from London streets. I +too have a new plaything, the best I ever had,--a wood-lot. Last +fall I bought a piece of more than forty acres, on the border of +a little lake half a mile wide and more, called Walden Pond,--a +place to which my feet have for years been accustomed to bring me +once or twice a week at all seasons. My lot to be sure is on the +further side of the water, not so familiar to me as the nearer +shore. Some of the wood is an old growth, but most of it has +been cut off within twenty years and is growing thriftily. In +these May days, when maples, poplars, oaks, birches, walnut, and +pine are in their spring glory, I go thither every afternoon, and +cut with my hatchet an Indian path through the thicket all along +the bold shore, and open the finest pictures. + +My two little girls know the road now, though it is nearly two +miles from my house, and find their way to the spring at the foot +of a pine grove, and with some awe to the ruins of a village of +shanties, all overgrown with mullein, which the Irish who built +the railroad left behind them. At a good distance in from the +shore the land rises to a rocky head, perhaps sixty feet above +the water. Thereon I think to place a hut; perhaps it will have +two stories and be a petty tower, looking out to Monadnoc and +other New Hampshire Mountains. There I hope to go with book and +pen when good hours come. I shall think there, a fortnight might +bring you from London to Walden Pond.--Life wears on, and do you +say the gray hairs appear? Few can so well afford them. The +black have not hung over a vacant brain, as England and America +know; nor, white or black, will it give itself any Sabbath for +many a day henceforward, as I believe. What have we to do with +old age? Our existence looks to me more than ever initial. We +have come to see the ground and look up materials and tools. The +men who have any positive quality are a flying advance party for +reconnoitring. We shall yet have a right work, and kings for +competitors. With ever affectionate remembrance to your wife, +your friend, + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 May, 1846 + +My Dear Friend,--It is late at night and I have postponed writing +not knowing but that my parcel would be ready to go,--and now a +public meeting and the speech of a rarely honest and eloquent man +have left me but a span of time for the morning's messenger. + +The photograph came safely, to my thorough content. I have what +I have wished. This head is to me out of comparison more +satisfying than any picture. I confirm my recollections and I +make new observations; it is life to life. Thanks to the Sun. +This artist remembers what every other forgets to report, and +what I wish to know, the true sculpture of the features, the +angles, the special organism, the rooting of the hair, the form +and the placing of the head. I am accustomed to expect of the +English a securing of the essentials in their work, and the sun +does that, and you have done it in this portrait, which gives me +much to think and feel.* I was instantly stirred to an emulation +of your love and punctuality, and, last Monday, which was my +forty-third birthday, I went to a new Daguerreotypist, who took +much pains to make his picture right. I brought home three +shadows not agreeable to my own eyes. The machine has a bad +effect on me. My wife protests against the imprints as +slanderous. My friends say they look ten years older, and, as I +think, with the air of a decayed gentleman touched with his first +paralysis. However I got yesterday a trusty vote or two for +sending one of them to you, on the ground that I am not likely to +get a better. But it now seems probable that it will not get +cased and into the hands of Harnden in time for the steamer +tomorrow. It will then go by that of the 16th. + +--------- +* From Emerson's Diary, May 23, 1846:--"In Carlyle's head +(photograph), which came last night, how much appears! How +unattainable this truth to any painter! Here have I the +inevitable traits which the sun forgets not to copy, and which I +thirst to see, but which no painter remembers to give me. Here +have I the exact sculpture, the form of the head, the rooting of +the hair, thickness of the lips, the man that God made. And all +the Laurences and D'Orsays now serve me well as illustration. I +have the form and organism, and can better spare the expression +and color. What would I not give for a head of Shakespeare by +the same artist? of Plato? of Demosthenes? Here I have the +jutting brow, and the excellent shape of the head. And here the +organism of the eye full of England, the valid eye, in which I +see the strong executive talent which has made his thought +available to the nations, whilst others as intellectual as he are +pale and powerless. The photograph comes dated 25 April, 1846, +and he writes, 'I am fifty years old."' +--------- + +I am heartily glad that you are in direct communication with +these really energetic booksellers, Wiley and Putnam. I +understood from Wiley's letter to me, weeks ago, that their +ambition was not less than to have a monopoly of your books. I +answered, it is very desirable for us too; saving always the +rights of Mr. Hart in Philadelphia.--I told him you had no +interest in Munroe's _Sartor,_ which from the first was his own +adventure, and Little and Brown had never reprinted _Past and +Present_ or _Chartism._ The _French Revolution, Past and +Present, Chartism,_ and the _Sartor,_ I see no reason why they +should not have. Munroe and L. & B. have no real claims, and I +will speak to them. But there is one good particular in Putnam's +proffer to you, which Wiley has not established in his (first and +last) agreement with me, namely, that you shall have an interest +in what is already sold of their first edition of _Cromwell._ By +all means close with Putnam of the good mind, exempting only +Hart's interest. I have no recent correspondence with Wiley and +Putnam. And I greatly prefer that they should deal directly +with you. Yet it were best to leave an American reference open +for audit and umpirage to the stanch E.P. Clark of the New +England Bank. + +Ever yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 June, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--I have had two letters of yours, the last of them +(31st May) only two days, and have seen a third written to Wiley +of New York. Yesterday Putnam was here, and we made our +bargain,--and are to have it signed this day at his Shop: two +copies, one of which I mean to insert along with this, and give +up to your or E.P. Clark's keeping. For, as you will see, I have +appointed Clark my representative, economic plenipotentiary and +factotum, if he will consent to act in that sublime capacity,-- +subject always to your advice, to your control in all _ultra_- +economic respects, of which you alone are cognizant of the +circumstances or competent to give a judgment. Pray explain this +with all lucidity to Mr. Clark: and endeavor to impress upon him +that it is (to all appearance) a real affair of business we are +now engaged in; that I would have him satisfy his own sharp eyes +(by such methods as he finds convenient and sufficient, by +examination at New York or how he can) that the conditions of +this bargain _are_ fairly complied with by the New York +Booksellers,--who promise "every facility for ascertaining _how +many_ copies are printed," &c., &c.; and profess to be of the +integrity of Israelites indeed, in all respects whatever! If so, +it may be really useful to us. And I would have Mr. Clark, if he +will allow me to look upon him as my _man of business_ in this +affair, take reasonable pains, be at any reasonable expense, &c. +(by himself or by deputy) to ascertain that it is so in very +fact! In that case, if something come of it, we shall get the +something and be thankful; if nothing come of it, we shall have +the pleasure of caring nothing about it.--I have given Putnam two +Books (_Heroes_ and _Sartor_) ready, corrected; the others I +think will follow in the course of next month;--F. _Revolution_ +waits only for an Index which my man is now busy with. The +_Cromwell,_ Supplement and all, he has now got,--published two +days ago, after sorrowful delays. Your Copy will be ready _this +afternoon,_--too late, I fear, by just one day: it will lie, in +that case, for a fortnight, and then come. Wiley will find that +he has no resource but to reprint the Book; he will reprint the +Supplement too, in justice to former purchasers; but this is the +_final_ form of the Book, this second edition; and to this all +readers of it will come at last. + +We expect the Daguerreotype by next Steamer; but you take good +care not to prepossess us on its behalf! In fact, I believe, the +only satisfactory course will be to get a Sketch done too; if +you have any Painter that can manage it tolerably, pray set about +that, as the true solution of the business--out of the two +together we shall make a likeness for ourselves that will do. +Let the Lady Wife be satisfied with it; then we shall pronounce +it genuine!-- + +I envy you your forest-work, your summer umbrages, and clear +silent lakes. The weather here is getting insupportable to us +for heat. Indeed, if rain do not come within two weeks, I +believe we must wind up our affairs, and make for some shady +place direct:--Scotland is perhaps likeliest; but nothing yet is +fixed: you shall duly hear.--Directly after this, I set off for +Putnam's in Waterloo Place; sign his paper there; stick one +copy under a cover for you, and despatch.--Send me word about all +that you are doing and thinking. Be busy, be still and happy. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 15 July, 1846 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I received by the last steamer your letter with +the copy of the covenant with Wiley and Putnam, which seems +unexceptionable. I like the English side of those men very well; +that is, Putnam seems eager to stand well and rightly with his +fellow-men. Wiley at New York it was who provoked me, last +winter, to write him an angry letter when he declared his +intention to reprint our new matter without paying for it. When +he thought better of it, and came to terms, I had not got so far +as to be affectionate, and have never yet resumed the +correspondence I had with him a year ago, about my own books. I +hope you found my letter to them, though I do not remember which, +properly cross. I believe I only enumerated difficulties. I +have talked with Little and Brown about their editions of +_Chartism,_ and _Past and Present;_ they have made no new sales +of the books since they were printed on by the pirates, and say +that the books lie still on their shelves, as also do a few +copies of the London and Boston edition of _French Revolution._ +I prayed them immediately to dispose of these things by auction, +or at their trade sales, at whatever prices would sell them, and +leave the market open for W. & P.; which they promise to do. + +To Munroe I went, and learn that he has bought the stereotype- +plates of the New York pirate edition of _Sartor,_ and means to +print it immediately. He is willing to stop if W. & P. will buy +of him his plates at their cost. I wrote so to them, but they +say no. And I have not spoken again with Munroe. I was in town +yesterday, and carried the copy of the Covenant to E.P. Clark, +and read him your message. His Bank occupies him entirely just +now, for his President is gone to Europe, and Clark's duties are +the more onerous. But finding that the new responsibilities +delegated to him are light and tolerable, and, at any rate, +involve no retrospection, he very cheerfully signified his +readiness to serve you, and I graciously forbore all allusions to +my heap of booksellers' accounts which he has had in keeping now +--for years, I believe. He told me that he hopes at no distant +day to have a house of his own,--he and his wife are always at +board,--and, whenever that happens, he intends to devote a +chamber in it to his "Illustrations of Mr. Carlyle's Writings," +which, I believe, I have told you before, are a very large and +extraordinary collection of prints, pictures, books, and +manuscripts. I sent you the promised Daguerrotype with all +unwillingness, by the steamer, I think of 16 June. On 1 August, +Margaret Fuller goes to England and the Continent; and I shall +not fail to write to you by her, and you must not fail to give a +good and faithful interview to this wise, sincere, accomplished, +and most entertaining of women. I wish to bespeak Jane Carlyle's +friendliest ear to one of the noblest of women. We shall send +you no other such. + +I was lately inquired of again by an agent of a huge Boston +society of young men, whether Mr. Carlyle would not come to +America and read Lectures, on some terms which they could +propose. I advised them to make him an offer, and a better one +than they had in view. Joy and Peace to you in your new freedom. + + --R.W.E. + + + +CXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 17 July, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--Since I wrote last to you, I think, with the +Wiley-and-Putnam Covenant enclosed,--the Photograph, after some +days of loitering at the Liverpool Custom-house, came safe to +hand. Many thanks to you for this punctuality: this poor +Shadow, it is all you could do at present in that matter! +But it must not rest there, no. This Image is altogether +unsatisfactory, illusive, and even in some measure tragical +to me! First of all, it is a bad Photograph; no _eyes_ +discernible, at least one of the eyes not, except in rare +favorable lights then, alas, Time itself and Oblivion must have +been busy. I could not at first, nor can I yet with perfect +decisiveness, bring out any feature completely recalling to +me the old Emerson, that lighted on us from the Blue, at +Craigenputtock, long ago,--_eheu!_ Here is a genial, smiling, +energetic face, full of sunny strength, intelligence, integrity, +good humor; but it lies imprisoned in baleful shades, as of the +valley of Death; seems smiling on me as if in mockery. "Dost +know me, friend? I am dead, thou seest, and distant, and forever +hidden from thee;--I belong already to the Eternities, and thou +recognizest me not!" On the whole, it is the strangest feeling I +have:--and practically the thing will be, that you get us by the +earliest opportunity some _living_ pictorial sketch, chalk- +drawing or the like, from a trustworthy hand; and send _it_ +hither to represent you. Out of the two I shall compile for +myself a likeness by degrees: but as for this present, we cannot +put up with it at all; to my Wife and me, and to sundry other +parties far and near that have interest in it, there is no +satisfaction in this. So there will be nothing for you but +compliance, by the first fair chance you have: furthermore, I +bargain that the _Lady_ Emerson have, within reasonable limits, a +royal veto in the business (not absolute, if that threaten +extinction to the enterprise, but absolute within the limits of +possibility); and that she take our case in hand, and graciously +consider what can and shall be done. That will answer, I think. + +Of late weeks I have been either idle, or sunk in the +sorrowfulest cobbling of old shoes again; sorrowfully reading +over old Books for the Putnams and Chapmans, namely. It is +really painful, looking in one's own old face; said "old face" +no longer a thing extant now!--Happily I have at last finished +it; the whole Lumber-troop with clothes duly brushed (_French +Revolution_ has even got an Index too) travels to New York in the +Steamer that brings you this. _Quod faustum sit:_--or indeed I +do not much care whether it be faustum or not; I grow to care +about an astonishingly small number of things as times turn with +me! Man, all men seem radically _dumb;_ jabbering mere jargons +and noises from the teeth outwards; the inner meaning of them,-- +of them and of me, poor devils,--remaining shut, buried forever. +If almost all Books were burnt (my own laid next the coal), I +sometimes in my spleen feel as if it really would be better with +us! Certainly could one generation of men be forced to live +without rhetoric, babblement, hearsay, in short with the tongue +well cut out of them altogether,--their fortunate successors +would find a most improved world to start upon! For Cant does +lie piled on us, high as the zenith; an Augean Stable with the +poisonous confusion piled so high: which, simply if there once +could be nothing said, would mostly dwindle like summer snow +gradually about its business, and leave us free to use our eyes +again! When I see painful Professors of Greek, poring in their +sumptuous Oxfords over dead _Greek_ for a thousand years or more, +and leaving live _English_ all the while to develop itself under +charge of Pickwicks and Sam Wellers, as if it were nothing and +the other were all things: this, and the like of it everywhere, +fills me with reflections! Good Heavens, will the people not +come out of their wretched Old-Clothes Monmouth-Streets, Hebrew +and other; but lie there dying of the basest pestilence,--dying +and as good as dead! On the whole, I am very weary of most +"Literature":--and indeed, in very sorrowful, abstruse humor +otherwise at present. + +For remedy to which I am, in these very hours, preparing for a +sally into the green Country and deep silence; I know not +altogether how or whitherward as yet; only that I must tend +towards Lancashire; towards Scotland at last. My Wife already +waits me in Lancashire; went off, in rather poor case, much +burnt by the hot Town, some ten days ago; and does not yet +report much improvement. I will write to you somewhere in my +wanderings. The address, "Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, N.B.," if you +chance to write directly or soon after this arrives, will, +likely, be the shortest: at any rate, that, or "Cheyne Row" +either, is always sure enough to find me in a day or two +after trying. + +By a kind of accident I have fallen considerably into American +History in these days; and am even looking out for American +Geography to help me. Jared Sparks, Marshall, &c. are hickory +and buckskin; but I do catch a credible trait of human life from +them here and there; Michelet's genial champagne _froth,_--alas, +I could find no fact in it that would stand handling; and so +have broken down in the middle of _La France,_ and run over to +hickory and Jared for shelter! Do you know Beriah Green?* A +body of Albany newspapers represent to me the people quarreling +in my name, in a very vague manner, as to the propriety of being +"governed," and Beriah's is the only rational voice among them. +Farewell, dear Friend. Speedy news of you! + + --T. Carlyle + + +--------- +* The Reverend Beriah Green, President for some years of Oneida +Institute, a manual-labor school at Whitesboro, N.Y. He was an +active reformer, and a leading member of the National Convention +which met in Philadelphia, December 4th, 1833, to form the +American Antislavery Society. He died in 1874, seventy-nine +years old. +--------- + + + + +CXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 July, 1846 + +My Dear Friend,--The new edition of _Cromwell_ in its perfect +form and in excellent dress, and the copy of the Appendix, came +munificently safe by the last steamer. When thought is best, +then is there most,--is a faith of which you alone among writing +men at this day will give me experience. If it is the right +frankincense and sandal-wood, it is so good and heavenly to give +me a basketful and not a pinch. I read proudly, a little at a +time, and have not yet got through the new matter. But I think +neither the new letters nor the commentary could be spared. +Wiley and Putnam shall do what they can, and we will see if +New England will not come to reckon this the best chapter in +her Pentateuch. + +I send this letter by Margaret Fuller, of whose approach I +believe I wrote you some word. There is no foretelling how you +visited and crowded English will like our few educated men or +women, and in your learned populace my luminaries may easily be +overlooked. But of all the travelers whom you have so kindly +received from me, I think of none, since Alcott went to England, +whom I so much desired that you should see and like, as this dear +old friend of mine. For two years now I have scarcely seen her, +as she has been at New York, engaged by Horace Greeley as a +literary editor of his _Tribune_ newspaper. This employment was +made acceptable to her by good pay, great local and personal +conveniences of all kinds, and unbounded confidence and respect +from Greeley himself, and all other parties connected with this +influential journal (of 30,000 subscribers, I believe). And +Margaret Fuller's work as critic of all new books, critic of the +drama, of music, and good arts in New York, has been honorable to +her. Still this employment is not satisfactory to me. She is +full of all nobleness, and with the generosity native to her mind +and character appears to me an exotic in New England, a foreigner +from some more sultry and expansive climate. She is, I suppose, +the earliest reader and lover of Goethe in this Country, and +nobody here knows him so well. Her love too of whatever is good +in French, and specially in Italian genius, give her the best +title to travel. In short, she is our citizen of the world by +quite special diploma. And I am heartily glad that she has an +opportunity of going abroad that pleases her. + +Mr. Spring, a merchant of great moral merits, (and, as I am +informed, an assiduous reader of your books,) has grown rich, and +resolves to see the world with his wife and son, and has wisely +invited Miss Fuller to show it to him. Now, in the first place, +I wish you to see Margaret when you are in special good humor, +and have an hour of boundless leisure. And I entreat Jane +Carlyle to abet and exalt and secure this satisfaction to me. I +need not, and yet perhaps I need say, that M.F. is the safest of +all possible persons who ever took pen in hand. Prince +Metternich's closet not closer or half so honorable. In the next +place, I should be glad if you can easily manage to show her the +faces of Tennyson and of Browning. She has a sort of right to +them both, not only because she likes their poetry, but because +she has made their merits widely known among our young people. +And be it known to my friend Jane Carlyle, whom, if I cannot see, +I delight to name, that her visitor is an immense favorite in the +parlor, as well as in the library, in all good houses where she +is known. And so I commend her to you. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 December, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--This is the 18th of the month, and it is a +frightful length of time, I know not how long, since I wrote to +you,--sinner that I am! Truly we are in no case for paying debts +at present, being all sick more or less, from the hard cold +weather, and in a state of great temporary puddle but, as the +adage says, "one should own debt, and crave days";--therefore +accept a word from me, such as it may be. + +I went, as usual, to the North Country in the Autumn; passed +some two extremely disconsolate months,--for all things distress +a wretched thin-skinned creature like me,--in that old region, +which is at once an Earth and a Hades to me, an unutterable +place, now that I have become mostly a _ghost_ there! I saw +Ireland too on my return, saw black potato-fields, a ragged noisy +population, that has long in a headlong baleful manner followed +the _Devil's_ leading, listened namely to blustering shallow- +violent Impostors and Children of Darkness, saying, "Yes, we know +_you,_ you are Children of Light!"--and so has fallen all out at +elbows in body and in soul; and now having lost its _potatoes_ +is come as it were to a crisis; all its windy nonsense cracking +suddenly to pieces under its feet: a very pregnant crisis +indeed! A country cast suddenly into the melting-pot,--say into +the Medea's-Caldron; to be boiled into horrid _dissolution;_ +whether into new _youth,_ into sound healthy life, or into +eternal death and annihilation, one does not yet know! Daniel +O'Connell stood bodily before me, in his green Mullaghmart Cap; +haranguing his retinue of Dupables: certainly the most _sordid_ +Humbug I have ever seen in this world; the emblem to me, he and +his talk and the worship and credence it found, of all the +miseries that can befall a Nation. I also conversed with Young +Ireland in a confidential manner; for Young Ireland, really +meaning what it says, is worth a little talk: the Heroism and +Patriotism of a new generation; welling fresh and new from the +breasts of Nature; and already poisoned by O'Connellism and the +_Old_ Irish atmosphere of bluster, falsity, fatuity, into one +knows not what. Very sad to see. On the whole, no man ought, +for any cause, to speak lies, or have anything to do with _lies;_ +but either hold his tongue, or speak a bit of the truth: that is +the meaning of a _tongue,_ people used to know!--Ireland was not +the place to console my sorrows. I returned home very sad out of +Ireland;--and indeed have remained one of the saddest, idlest, +most useless of Adam's sons ever since; and do still remain so. +I care not to _write_ anything more,--so it seems to me at +present. I am in my vacant interlunar cave (I suppose that is +the truth);--and I ought to wrap my mantle round me, and lie, if +dark, _silent_ also. But, alas, I have wasted almost all your +poor sheet first!-- + +Miss Fuller came duly as you announced; was welcomed for your +sake and her own. A high-soaring, clear, enthusiast soul; in +whose speech there is much of all that one wants to find in +speech. A sharp, subtle intellect too; and less of that +shoreless Asiatic dreaminess than I have sometimes met with in +her writings. We liked one another very well, I think, and the +Springs too were favorites. But, on the whole, it could not be +concealed, least of all from the sharp female intellect, that +this Carlyle was a dreadfully heterodox, not to say a dreadfully +savage fellow, at heart; believing no syllable of all that +Gospel of Fraternity, Benevolence, and _new_ Heaven-on-Earth, +preached forth by all manner of "advanced" creatures, from George +Sand to Elihu Burritt, in these days; that in fact the said +Carlyle not only disbelieved all that, but treated it as +poisonous cant,--_sweetness_ of sugar-of-lead,--a detestable +_phosphorescence_ from the dead body of a Christianity, that +would not admit itself to be dead, and lie buried with all its +unspeakable putrescences, as a venerable dead one ought!--Surely +detestable enough.--To all which Margaret listened with much good +nature; though of course with sad reflections not a few.*--She +is coming back to us, she promises. Her dialect is very +vernacular,--extremely exotic in the London climate. If she do +not gravitate too irresistibly towards that class of New-Era +people (which includes whatsoever we have of prurient, esurient, +morbid, flimsy, and in fact pitiable and unprofitable, and is at +a sad discount among men of sense), she may get into good tracks +of inquiry and connection here, and be very useful to herself and +others. I could not show her Alfred (he has been here since) nor +Landor: but surely if I can I will,--that or a hundred times as +much as that,--when she returns.--They tell me you are about +collecting your Poems. Well, though I do not approve of rhyme at +all, yet it is impossible Emerson in rhyme or prose can put down +any thought that was in his heart but I should wish to get into +mine. So let me have the Book as fast as may be. And do others +like it if you will take circumbendibuses for sound's sake! And +excuse the Critic who seems to you so unmusical; and say, It is +the nature of beast! Adieu, dear Friend: write to me, write +to me. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +-------- +* Miss Fullers impressions of Carlyle, much to this effect, may +be found in the "Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli," Boston, +1852, Vol. II. pp. 184-190. +--------- + + + + +CXVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 January, 1847 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Your letter came with a blessing last week. I +had already learned from Margaret Fuller, at Paris, that you had +been very good and gentle to her;--brilliant and prevailing, of +course, but, I inferred, had actually restrained the volleys and +modulated the thunder, out of true courtesy and goodness of +nature, which was worthy of all praise in a spoiled conqueror at +this time of day. Especially, too, she expressed a true +recognition and love of Jane Carlyle; and thus her visit proved +a solid satisfaction; to me, also, who think that few people +have so well earned their pleasures as she. + +She wrote me a long letter; she has been very happy in England, +and her time and strength fully employed. Her description of you +and your discourse (which I read with lively curiosity also) was +the best I have had on that subject. + +I tried hard to write you by the December steamer, to tell you +how forward was my book of Poems; but a little affair makes me +much writing. I chanced to have three or four items of business +to despatch, when the steamer was ready to go, and you escaped +hearing of them. I am the trustee of Charles Lane, who came out +here with Alcott and bought land, which, though sold, is not +paid for. + +Somebody or somebodies in Liverpool and Manchester* have proposed +once or twice, with more or less specification, that I should +come to those cities to lecture. And who knows but I may come +one day? Steam is strong, and Liverpool is near. I should +find my account in the strong inducement of a new audience to +finish pieces which have lain waiting with little hope for months +or years. + +---------- +* Mr. Alexander Ireland, who had made the acquaintance of Emerson +at Edinburgh, in 1833, was his Manchester correspondent. His +memorial volume on Emerson contains an interesting record of +their relations. +---------- + +Ah then, if I dared, I should be well content to add some golden +hours to my life in seeing you, now all full-grown and +acknowledged amidst your own people,--to hear and to speak is so +little yet so much. But life is dangerous and delicate. I +should like to see your solid England. The map of Britain is +good reading for me. Then I have a very ignorant love of +pictures, and a curiosity about the Greek statues and stumps in +the British Museum. So beware of me, for on that distant day +when I get ready I shall come. + +Long before this time you ought to have received from John +Chapman a copy of Emerson's Poems, so called, which he was +directed to send you. Poor man, you need not open them. I know +all you can say. I printed them, not because I was deceived into +a belief that they were poems, but because of the softness or +hardness of heart of many friends here who have made it a point +to have them circulated.* Once having set out to print, I obeyed +the solicitations of John Chapman, of an ill-omened street in +London, to send him the book in manuscript, for the better +securing of copyright. In printing them here I have corrected +the most unpardonable negligences, which negligences must be all +stereotyped under his fair London covers and gilt paper to the +eyes of any curious London reader; from which recollection I +strive to turn away. + +--------- +* In the rough draft the following sentence comes in here "I +reckon myself a good beginning of a poet, very urgent and decided +in my bent, and in some coming millennium I shall yet sing." +--------- + +Little and Brown have just rendered me an account, by which it +appears that we are not quite so well off as was thought last +summer, when they said they had sold at auction the balance of +your books which had been lying unsold. It seems now that the +books supposed to be sold were not all taken, and are returned to +them; one hundred _Chartism,_ sixty-three _Past and Present._ +Yet we are to have some eighty-three dollars ($83.68), which you +shall probably have by the next steamer. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 2 March, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--The Steamer goes tomorrow; I must, though in a +very dim condition, have a little word for you conveyed by it. +In the miscellaneous maw of that strange Steamer shall lie, among +other things, a friendly _word!_ + +Your very kind Letter lay waiting me here, some ten days ago; +doubly welcome, after so long a silence. We had been in +Hampshire, with the Barings, where we were last year;--some four +weeks or more; totally idle: our winter had been, and indeed +still is, unusually severe; my Wife's health in consequence was +sadly deranged; but this idleness, these Isle-of-Wight sea- +breezes, have brought matters well round again; so we cannot +grudge the visit or the idleness, which otherwise too might have +its uses. Alas, at this time my normal state is to be altogether +_idle,_ to look out upon a very lonely universe, full of grim +sorrow, full of splendor too; and not to know at all, for the +moment, on what side I am to attack it again!--I read your Book +of Poems all faithfully, at Bay House (our Hampshire quarters); +where the obstinate people,--with whom you are otherwise, in +prose, a first favorite,--foolishly _refused_ to let me read +aloud; foolishly, for I would have made it mostly all plain by +commentary:--so I had to read for myself; and can say, in spite +of my hard-heartedness, I did gain, though under impediments, a +real satisfaction and some tone of the Eternal Melodies sounding, +afar off, ever and anon, in my ear! This is fact; a truth in +Natural History; from which you are welcome to draw inferences. +A grand View of the Universe, everywhere the sound (unhappily +_far of,_ as it were) of a valiant, genuine Human Soul: this, +even under rhyme, is a satisfaction worth some struggling for. +But indeed you are very perverse; and through this perplexed +undiaphanous element, you do not fall on me like radiant summer +rainbows, like floods of sunlight, but with thin piercing +radiances which affect me like the light of the _stars._ It is +so: I wish you would become _concrete,_ and write in prose the +straightest way; but under any form I must put up with you; +that is my lot.--Chapman's edition, as you probably know, is very +beautiful. I believe there are enough of ardent silent seekers +in England to buy up this edition from him, and resolutely study +the same: as for the review multitude, they dare not exactly +call it "unintelligible moonshine," and so will probably hold +their tongue. It is my fixed opinion that we are all at sea as +to what is called Poetry, Art, &c., in these times; laboring +under a dreadful incubus of _Tradition,_ and mere "Cant heaped +balefully on us up to the very Zenith," as men, in nearly all +other provinces of their Life, except perhaps the railway +province, do now labor and stagger;--in a word, that Goethe-and- +Schiller's _"Kunst"_ has far more brotherhood with Pusey-and- +Newman's _Shovelhattery,_ and other the like deplorable +phenomena, than it is in the least aware of! I beg you take +warning: I am more serious in this than you suppose. But no, +you will not; you whistle lightly over my prophecies, and go +your own stiff-necked road. Unfortunate man!-- + +I had read in the Newspapers, and even heard in speech from +Manchester people, that you were certainly coming this very +summer to lecture among us: but now it seems, in your Letter, +all postponed into the vague again. I do not personally know +your Manchester negotiators, but I know in general that they are +men of respectability, insight, and activity; much connected +with the lecturing department, which is a very growing one, +especially in Lancashire, at present;--men likely, for the rest, +to _fulfil_ whatsoever they may become engaged for to you. My +own ignorant though confident guess, moreover, is, that you +would, in all senses of the word, _succeed_ there; I think, also +rather confidently, we could promise you an audience of British +aristocracy in London here,--and of British commonalty all manner +of audiences that you liked to stoop to. I heard an ignorant +blockhead (or mainly so) called --- bow-wowing here, some months +ago, to an audience of several thousands, in the City, one +evening,--upon Universal Peace, or some other field of +balderdash; which the poor people seemed very patient of. In a +word, I do not see what is to hinder you to come whenever you can +resolve upon it. The adventure is perfectly promising: an +adventure familiar to you withal; for Lecturing is with us +fundamentally just what it is with you: Much prurient curiosity, +with some ingenuous love of wisdom, an element of real reverence +for the same: everywhere a perfect openness to any man speaking +in any measure things manful. Come, therefore; gird yourself +together, and come. With little or no peradventure, you will +realize what your modest hope is, and more;--and I, for my share +of it, shall see you once again under this Sun! O Heavens, there +_might_ be some good in that! Nay, if you will travel like a +private quiet person, who knows but I, the most unlocomotive of +mortals, might be able to escort you up and down a little; to +look at many a thing along with you, and even to open my long- +closed heart and speak about the same?--There is a spare-room +always in this House for you,--in this heart, in these two +hearts, the like: bid me hope in this enterprise, in all manner +of ways where I can; and on the whole, get it rightly put +together, and embark on it, and arrive! + +The good Miss Fuller has painted us all _en beau,_ and your +smiling imagination has added new colors. We have not a +triumphant life here; very far indeed from that, _ach Gott!_--as +you shall see. But Margaret is an excellent soul: in real +regard with both of us here. Since she went, I have been reading +some of her Papers in a new Book we have got: greatly superior +to all I knew before; in fact the undeniable utterances (now +first undeniable to me) of a true heroic mind;--altogether +unique, so far as I know, among the Writing Women of this +generation; rare enough too, God knows, among the writing Men. +She is very narrow, sometimes; but she is truly high: honor to +Margaret, and more and more good-speed to her.--Adieu dear +Emerson. I am ever yours, + + --T.C. + + + +CXIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 March, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--Yesterday morning, setting out to breakfast with +Richard Milnes (Milnes's breakfast is a thing you will yet have +to experience) I met, by the sunny shore of the Thames, a +benevolent Son of Adam in blue coat and red collar, who thrust +into my hand a Letter from you. A truly miraculous Son of Adam +in red collar, in the Sunny Spring Morning!--The Bill of +Seventeen Pounds is already far on its way to Dumfries, there to +be kneaded into gold by the due artists: today is American Post- +day; and already in huge hurry about many things, I am +scribbling you some word of answer.... The night _before_ +Milnes's morning, I had furthermore seen your Manchester +Correspondent, Ireland,--an old Edinborough acquaintance too, as +I found. A solid, dark, broad, rather heavy man; full of +energy, and broad sagacity and practicality;--infinitely well +affected to the man Emerson too. It was our clear opinion that +you might come at any time with ample assurance of "succeeding," +so far as wages went, and otherwise; that you ought to come, and +must, and would,--as he, Ireland, would farther write to you. +There is only one thing I have to add of my own, and beg you to +bear in mind,--a date merely. _Videlicet,_ That the time for +lecturing to the London West-End, I was given everywhere to +understand, is _from the latter end of April_ (or say April +altogether) _to the end of May:_ this is a fixed Statistic fact, +all men told me: of this you are in all arrangements to keep +mind. For it will actually do your heart good to look into the +faces, and speak into minds, of really Aristocratic Persons,-- +being one yourself, you Sinner,--and perhaps indeed this will be +the greatest of all the _novelties_ that await you in your +voyage. Not to be seen, I believe, at least never seen by me in +any perfection, except in London only. From April to the end of +May; during those weeks you must be _here,_ and free: remember +that date. Will you come in Winter then, next Winter,--or when? +Ireland professed to know you by the Photograph too; which I +never yet can.--I wrote by last Packet: enough here. Your +friend Cunningham has not presented himself; shall be right +welcome when he does,--as all that in the least belong to you may +well hope to be. Adieu. Our love to you all. + +Ever Yours, + T. Carlyle + + + +CXX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 April, 1847 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I have two good letters from you, and until now +you have had no acknowledgment. Especially I ought to have told +you how much pleasure your noble invitation in March gave me. +This pleasing dream of going to England dances before me +sometimes. It would be, I then fancy, that stimulation which my +capricious, languid, and languescent study needs. At home, no +man makes any proper demand on me, and the audience I address is +a handful of men and women too widely scattered than that they +can dictate to me that which they are justly entitled to say. +Whether supercilious or respectful, they do not say anything that +can be heard. Of course, I have only myself to please, and my +work is slighted as soon as it has lost its first attraction. It +is to be hoped, if one should cross the sea, that the terror of +your English culture would scare the most desultory of Yankees +into precision and fidelity; and perhaps I am not yet too old to +be animated by what would have seemed to my youth a proud +privilege. If you shall fright me into labor and concentration, +I shall win my game; for I can well afford to pay any price to +get my work well done. For the rest, I hesitate, of course, to +rush rudely on persons that have been so long invisible angels to +me. No reasonable man but must hold these bounds in awe:--I-- +much more,--who am of a solitary habit, from my childhood until +now.--I hear nothing again from Mr. Ireland. So I will let the +English Voyage hang as an afternoon rainbow in the East, and mind +my apples and pears for the present. + +You are to know that in these days I lay out a patch of orchard +near my house, very much to the improvement, as all the household +affirm, of our homestead. Though I have little skill in these +things, and must borrow that of my neighbors, yet the works of +the garden and orchard at this season are fascinating, and will +eat up days and weeks, and a brave scholar should shun it like +gambling, and take refuge in cities and hotels from these +pernicious enchantments. For the present, I stay in the +new orchard. + +Duyckinck, a literary man in New York, who advises Wiley and +Putnam in their publishing enterprises, wrote me lately, that +they had $600 for you, from _Cromwell._ So may it be. + +Yours, + R.W.E. + + + +CXXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 May, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--....My time is nearly up today; but I write a +word to acknowledge your last Letter (30 April), and various +other things. For example, you must tell Mr. Thoreau (is that +the exact name? for I have lent away the printed pages) that his +Philadelphia Magazine with the _Lecture_* in two pieces was +faithfully delivered here, about a fortnight ago; and carefully +read, as beseemed, with due entertainment and recognition. A +vigorous Mr. Thoreau,--who has formed himself a good deal upon +one Emerson, but does not want abundant fire and stamina of his +own;--recognizes us, and various other things, in a most admiring +great-hearted manner; for which, as for _part_ of the confused +voice from the jury bog (not yet summed into a verdict, nor +likely to be summed till Doomsday, nor needful to sum), the poor +prisoner at the bar may justly express himself thankful! In +plain prose, I like Mr. Thoreau very well; and hope yet to hear +good and better news of him:--only let him not "turn to +foolishness"; which seems to me to be terribly easy, at present, +both in New England and Old! May the Lord deliver us all from +_Cant;_ may the Lord, whatever else he do or forbear, teach us +to look Facts honestly in the face, and to beware (with a kind of +shudder) of smearing _them_ over with our despicable and damnable +palaver, into irrecognizability, and so _falsifying_ the Lord's +own Gospels to his unhappy blockheads of children, all staggering +down to Gehenna and the everlasting Swine's-trough for _want_ of +Gospels.--O Heaven, it is the most accursed sin of man; and done +everywhere, at present, on the streets and high places, at +noonday! Very seriously I say, and pray as my chief orison, May +the Lord deliver us from it.-- + +---------- +* On Carlyle, published in _Graham's Magazine_ in March and +April, 1847. +---------- + +About a week ago there came your neighbor Hoar; a solid, +sensible, effectual-looking man, of whom I hope to see much more. +So soon as possible I got him under way for Oxford, where I +suppose he was, last week;--_both_ Universities was too much for +the limits of his time; so he preferred Oxford;--and now, this +very day, I think, he was to set out for the Continent; not to +return till the beginning of July, when he promises to call here +again. There was something really pleasant to me in this Mr. +Hoar: and I had innumerable things to ask him about Concord, +concerning which topic we had hardly got a word said when our +first interview had to end. I sincerely hope he will not fail to +keep his time in returning. + +You do very well, my Friend, to plant orchards; and fair fruit +shall they grow (if it please Heaven) for your grandchildren to +pluck;--a beautiful occupation for the son of man, in all +patriarchal and paternal times (which latter are patriarchal +too)! But you are to understand withal that your coming hither +to lecture is taken as a settled point by all your friends here; +and for my share I do not reckon upon the smallest doubt about +the _essential_ fact of it, simply on some calculation and +adjustment about the circumstantials. Of Ireland, who I surmise +is busy in the problem even now, you will hear by and by, +probably in more definite terms: I did not see him again after +my first notice of him to you; but there is no doubt concerning +his determinations (for all manner of reasons) to get you to +Lancashire, to England;--and in fact it is an adventure which I +think you ought to contemplate as _fixed,_--say for this year and +the beginning of next? Ireland will help you to fix the dates; +and there is nothing else, I think, which should need fixing.-- +Unquestionably you would get an immense quantity of food for +ideas, though perhaps not at all in the way you anticipate, in +looking about among us: nay, if you even thought us _stupid,_ +there is something in the godlike indifference with which London +will accept and sanction even that verdict,--something highly +instructive at least! And in short, for the truth must be told, +London is properly your Mother City too,--verily you have about +as much to do with it, in spite of Polk and Q. Victory, as I had! +And you ought to come and look at it, beyond doubt; and say to +this land, "Old Mother, how are you getting on at all?" To which +the Mother will answer, "Thankee, young son, and you?"--in a way +useful to both parties! That is truth. + +Adieu, dear Emerson; good be with you always. Hoar gave me your +_American_ Poems: thanks. _Vale et me ama._ + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CXXII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 4 June, 1847 + +Dear Carlyle,--I have just got your friendliest letter of May 18, +with its varied news and new invitations. Really you are a +dangerous correspondent with your solid and urgent ways of +speaking. No affairs and no studies of mine, I fear, will be +able to make any head against these bribes. Well, I will adorn +the brow of the coming months with this fine hope; then if the +rich God at last refuses the jewel, no doubt he will give +something better--to both of us. But thinking on this project +lately, I see one thing plainly, that I must not come to London +as a lecturer. If the plan proceed, I will come and see you,-- +thankful to Heaven for that mercy, should such a romance looking +reality come to pass,--I will come and see you and Jane Carlyle, +and will hear what you have to say. You shall even show me, if +you will, such other men and women as will suffer themselves to +be seen and heard, asking for nothing again. Then I will depart +in peace, as I came. + +At Mr. Ireland's "Institutes," I will read lectures; and +possibly in London too, if, when there, you looking with your +clear eyes shall say that it is desired by persons who ought to +be gratified. But I wish such lecturing to be a mere +contingency, and nowise a settled purpose. I had rather stay at +home, and forego the happiness of seeing you, and the excitement +of England, than to have the smallest pains taken to collect an +audience for me. So now we will leave this egg in the desert for +the ostrich Time to hatch it or not. + +It seems you are not tired of pale Americans, or will not own it. +You have sent our Country-Senator* where he wanted to go, and to +the best hospitalities as we learn today directly from him. I +cannot avoid sending you another of a different stamp. Henry +Hedge is a recluse but Catholic scholar in our remote Bangor, who +reads German and smokes in his solitary study through nearly +eight months of snow in the year, and deals out, every Sunday, +his witty apothegms to the lumber-merchants and township-owners +of Penobscot River, who have actually grown intelligent +interpreters of his riddles by long hearkening after them. They +have shown themselves very loving and generous lately, in making +a quite munificent provision for his traveling. Hedge has a true +and mellow heart,... and I hope you will like him. + +-------- +* The Hon. E. Rockwood Hoar. +-------- + +I have seen lately a Texan, ardent and vigorous, who assured me +that Carlyle's Writings were read with eagerness on the banks of +the Colorado. There was more to tell, but it is too late. + +Ever yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXXIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 July, 1847 + +Dear Carlyle,--In my old age I am coming to see you. I have +written this day, in answer to sundry letters brought me by the +last steamer, from Mr. Ireland and Mr. Hudson of Leeds, that I +mean in good earnest to sail for Liverpool or for London about +the first of October; and I am disposing my astonished +household--astonished at such a Somerset of the sedentary master +--with that view. + +My brother William was here this week from New York, and will +come again to carry my mother home with him for the winter; my +wife and children three are combining for and against me; at all +events, I am to have my visit. I pray you to cherish your good +nature, your mercy. Let your wife cherish it,--that I may see, I +indolent, this incredible worker, whose toil has been long since +my pride and wonder,--that I may see him benign and unexacting,-- +he shall not be at the crisis of some over-labor. I shall not +stay but an hour. What do I care for his fame? Ah! how gladly I +hoped once to see Sterling as mediator and amalgam, when my turn +should come to see the Saxon gods at home: Sterling, who had +certain American qualities in his genius;--and now you send me +his shade. I found at Munroe's shop the effigy, which, he said, +Cunningham, whom I have not seen or heard from, had left there +for me; a front face, and a profile, both--especially the first +--a very welcome satisfaction to my sad curiosity, the face very +national, certainly, but how thoughtful and how friendly! What +more belongs to this print--whether you are editing his books, or +yourself drawing his lineaments--I know not. + +I find my friends have laid out much work for me in Yorkshire and +Lancashire. What part of it I shall do, I cannot yet tell. As +soon as I know how to arrange my journey best, I shall write +you again. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + +CXXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Rawdon, Near Leeds, Yorkshire +31 August, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--Almost ever since your last Letter reached me, I +have been wandering over the country, enveloped either in a +restless whirl of locomotives, view-hunting, &c., or sunk in the +deepest torpor of total idleness and laziness, forgetting, and +striving to forget, that there was any world but that of dreams; +--and though at intervals the reproachful remembrance has arisen +sharply enough on me, that I ought, on all accounts high and low, +to have written you an answer, never till today have I been able +to take pen in hand, and actually begin that operation! Such is +the naked fact. My Wife is with me; we leave no household +behind us but a servant; the face of England, with its mad +electioneerings, vacant tourist dilettantings, with its shady +woods, green yellow harvest-fields and dingy mill-chimneys, so +new and old, so beautiful and ugly, every way so _abstruse_ and +_un_speakable, invites to silence; the whole world, fruitful yet +disgusting to this human soul of mine, invites me to silence; to +sleep, and dreams, and stagnant indifference, as if for the time +one had _got_ into the country of the Lotos-Eaters, and it made +no matter what became of anything and all things. In good truth, +it is a wearied man, at least a dreadfully slothful and +slumberous man, eager for _sleep_ in any quantity, that now +addresses you! Be thankful for a few half-dreaming words, till +we awake again. + +As to your visit to us, there is but one thing to be said and +repeated: That a prophet's chamber is ready for you in Chelsea, +and a brotherly and sisterly welcome, on whatever day at whatever +hour you arrive: this, which is all of the Practical that I can +properly take charge of, is to be considered a given quantity +always. With regard to Lecturing, &c., Ireland, with whom I +suppose you to be in correspondence, seems to have awakened all +this North Country into the fixed hope of hearing you,--and God +knows they have need enough to hear a man with sense in his +head;--it was but the other day I read in one of their +Newspapers, "We understand that Mr. Emerson the distinguished &c. +is certainly &c. this winter," all in due Newspaper phrase, and I +think they settled your arrival for "October" next. May it prove +so! But on the whole there _is_ no doubt of your coming; that +is a great fact. And if so, I should say, Why not come at once, +even as the Editor surmises? You will evidently do no other +considerable enterprise till this voyage to England is achieved. +Come therefore;--and we shall see; we shall hear and speak! I +do not know another man in all the world to whom I can _speak_ +with clear hope of getting adequate response from him: if I +speak to you, it will be a breaking of my silence for the last +time perhaps,--perhaps for the first time, on some points! +_Allons._ I shall not always be so roadweary, lifeweary, sleepy, +and stony as at present. I even think there is yet another Book +in me; "Exodus from Houndsditch" (I think it might be called), +a peeling off of fetid _Jewhood_ in every sense from myself and +my poor bewildered brethren: one other Book; and, if it were a +right one, rest after that, the deeper the better, forevermore. +_Ach Gott!_-- + +Hedge is one of the sturdiest little fellows I have come across +for many a day. A face like a rock; a voice like a howitzer; +only his honest kind gray eyes reassure you a little. We have +met only once; but hope (mutually, I flatter myself) it may be +often by and by. That hardy little fellow too, what has he to do +with "Semitic tradition" and the "dust-hole of extinct +Socinianism," George-Sandism, and the Twaddle of a thousand +Magazines? Thor and his Hammer, even, seem to me a little more +respectable; at least, "My dear Sir, endeavor to clear your mind +of Cant." Oh, we are all sunk, much deeper than any of us +imagines. And our worship of "beautiful sentiments," &c., &c. is +as contemptible a form of long-ears as any other, perhaps the +most so of any. It is in fact damnable.--We will say no more of +it at present. Hedge came to me with tall lank Chapman at his +side,--an innocent flail of a creature, with considerable impetus +in him: the two when they stood up together looked like a circle +and tangent,--in more senses than one. + +Jacobson, the Oxford Doctor, who welcomed your Concord Senator in +that City, writes to me that he has received (with blushes, &c.) +some grand "Gift for his Child" from that Traveler; whom I am +accordingly to thank, and blush to,--Jacobson not knowing his +address at present. The "address" of course is still more +unknown to _me_ at present: but we shall know it, and the man it +indicates, I hope, again before long. So, much for that. + +And now, dear Emerson, Adieu. Will your next Letter tell us the +_when?_ O my Friend! We are here with Quakers, or Ex-Quakers +rather; a very curious people, "like water from the crystal +well"; in a very curious country too, most beautiful and very +ugly: but why write of it, or of anything more, while half +asleep and lotos-eating! Adieu, my Friend; come soon, and let +us meet again under this Sun. + +Yours, + T. Carlyle + + + +CXXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 September, 1847 + +My Dear Carlyle,--The last steamer brought, as ever, good tidings +from you, though certainly from a new habitat, at Leeds, or near +it. If Leeds will only keep you a little in its precinct, I will +search for you there; for it is one of the parishes in the +diocese which Mr. Ireland and his friends have carved out for me +on the map of England. + +I have taken a berth in the packet-ship "Washington Irving," +which leaves Boston for Liverpool next week, 5 October; having +decided, after a little demurring and advising, to follow my +inclination in shunning the steamer. The owners will almost take +oath that their ship cannot be out of a port twenty days. At +Liverpool and Manchester I shall take advice of Ireland and his +officers of the "Institutes," and perhaps shall remain for some +time in that region, if my courage and my head are equal to the +work they offer me. I will write you what befalls me in the +strange city. Who knows but I may have adventures--I who had +never one, as I have just had occasion to write to Mrs. Howitt, +who inquired what mine were? + +Well, if I survive Liverpool, and Manchester, and Leeds, or +rather my errands thither, I shall come some fine day to see you +in your burly city, you in the centre of the world, and sun me a +little in your British heart. It seems a lively passage that I +am entering in the old Dream World, and perhaps the slumbers are +lighter and the Morning is near. Softly, dear shadows, do not +scatter yet. Knit your panorama close and well, till these rare +figures just before me draw near, and are greeted and known. + +But there is no more time in this late night--and what need? +since I shall see you and yours soon. + +Ever yours, + R.W.E. + + + + +CXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 15 October, 1847 + +My Dear Emerson,--Your Letter from Concord, of the 31st of July, +had arrived duly in London; been duly forwarded to my transient +address at Buxton in Derbyshire,--and there, by the faithless +Postmaster, _retained_ among his lumber, instead of given to me +when I called on him! We staid in Buxton only one day and night; +two Newspapers, as I recollect, the Postmaster did deliver to me +on my demand; but your Letter he, with scandalous carelessness, +kept back, and left me to travel forwards without: there +accordingly it lay, week after week, for a month or more; and +only by half-accident and the extraordinary diligence and +accuracy of our Chelsea Postman, was it recovered at all, not +many days ago, after my Wife's return hither. Consider what kind +of fact this was and has been for us! For now, if all have gone +right, you are approaching the coast of England; Chelsea and +your fraternal House _hidden_ under a disastrous cloud to you; +and I know not so much as whitherward to write, and send you a +word of solution. It is one of the most unpleasant mistakes that +ever befell me; I have no resource but to enclose this Note to +Mr. Ireland, and charge him by the strongest adjurations to +have it ready for you the first thing when you set foot upon +our shores.* + +------------ +* Mr. Ireland, in his Recollections of Emerson's Visit to +England, p. 59, prints Carlyle's note to himself, enclosing this +letter, and adds: "The ship reached Liverpool on the 22d of +October, and Mr. Emerson at once proceeded to Manchester. After +spending a few hours in friendly talk, he was 'shot up,' as +Carlyle had desired, to Chelsea, and at the end of a week +returned to Manchester, to begin his lectures." +--------- + +Know then, my Friend, that in verity your Home while in England +is _here;_ and all other places, whither work or amusement may +call you, are but inns and temporary lodgings. I have returned +hither a day or two ago, and free from any urgent calls or +businesses of any kind; my Wife has your room all ready;--and +here surely, if anywhere in the wide Earth, there ought to be a +brother's welcome and kind home waiting you! Yes, by Allah!--An +"Express Train" leaves Liverpool every afternoon; and in some +six hours will set you down here. I know not what your +engagements are; but I say to myself, Why not come at once, and +rest a little from your sea-changes, before going farther? In +six hours you can be out of the unstable waters, and sitting in +your own room here. You shall not be bothered with talk till you +repose; and you shall have plenty of it, hot and hot, when the +appetite does arise in you. "No. 5 Great Cheyne Row, Chelsea": +come to the "London Terminus," from any side; say these magic +words to any Cabman, and by night or by day you are a welcome +apparition here,--foul befall us otherwise! This is the fact: +what more can I say? I make my affidavit of the same; and +require you in the name of all Lares and Penates, and Household +Gods ancient and modern which are sacred to men, to consider it +and take brotherly account of it!-- + +Shall we hear of you, then, in a day or two: shall we not +perhaps see you in a day or two! That depends on the winds and +the chances; but our affection is independent of such. Adieu; +_au revoir,_ it now is! Come soon; come at once. + +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + + + + +Extracts from Emerson's Diary + +October, 1847 + +"I found at Liverpool, after a couple of days, a letter which had +been seeking me, from Carlyle, addressed to 'R.W.E. on the +instant when he lands in England,' conveying the heartiest +welcome and urgent invitation to house and hearth. And finding +that I should not be wanted for a week in the Lecture-rooms I +came down to London on Monday, and, at ten at night, the door was +opened by Jane Carlyle, and the man himself was behind her with a +lamp in the hall. They were very little changed from their old +selves of fourteen years ago (in August), when I left them at +Craigenputtock. 'Well,' said Carlyle, 'here we are shoveled +together again.' The floodgates of his talk are quickly opened, +and the river is a plentiful stream. We had a wide talk that +night until nearly one o'clock, and at breakfast next morning +again. At noon or later we walked forth to Hyde Park and the +Palaces, about two miles from here, to the National Gallery, and +to the Strand, Carlyle melting all Westminster and London into +his talk and laughter, as he goes. Here, in his house, we +breakfast about nine, and Carlyle is very prone, his wife says, +to sleep till ten or eleven, if he has no company. An immense +talker, and altogether as extraordinary in that as in his +writing; I think, even more so; you will never discover his +real vigor and range, or how much more he might do than he has +ever done, without seeing him. My few hours discourse with him, +long ago, in Scotland, gave me not enough knowledge of him; and +I have now at last been taken by surprise by him." + +"C. and his wife live on beautiful terms. Their ways are very +engaging, and, in her bookcase, all his books are inscribed to her, +as they came from year to year, each with some significant lines." + +"I had a good talk with C. last night. He says over and over, +for months, for years, the same thing. Yet his guiding genius is +his moral sense, his perception of the sole importance of truth +and justice; and he, too, says that there is properly no +religion in England. He is quite contemptuous about _'Kunst,'_ +also, in Germans, or English, or Americans;* and has a huge +respect for the Duke of Wellington, as the only Englishman, or +the only one in the Aristocracy, who will have nothing to do with +any manner of lie." + +---------- +* See _English Traits,_ Ch. XVI.; and _Life of Sterling,_ Part +II. Ch. VII. "Among the windy gospels addressed to our poor +century there are few louder than this of Art." +---------- + +The following sentences are of later date than the preceding:-- + +"Carlyle had all the _kleinstadtlich_ traits of an islander +and a Scotsman, and reprimanded with severity the rebellious +instincts of the native of a vast continent which made light of +the British Islands." + +"Carlyle has a hairy strength which makes his literary vocation a +mere chance, and what seems very contemptible to him. I could +think only of an enormous trip-hammer with an 'Aeolian attachment."' + +"In Carlyle as in Byron, one is more struck with the rhetoric +than with the matter. He has manly superiority rather than +intellectuality, and so makes good hard hits all the time. There +is more character than intellect in every sentence, herein +strongly resembling Samuel Johnson." + +"England makes what a step from Dr. Johnson to Carlyle! what +wealth of thought and science, what expansion of views and +profounder resources does the genius and performance of this +last imply! If she can make another step as large, what new +ages open!" + + + + +CXXVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Mrs. Massey's, Manchester, 2 Fenny Place, Fenny St. +November 5, 1847 + +Ah! my dear friend, all these days have gone, and you have had no +word from me, when the shuttles fly so swiftly in your English +loom, and in so few hours we may have tidings of the best that +live. At last, and only this day for the first day, I am +stablished in my own lodgings on English ground, and have a fair +parlor and chamber, into both of which the sun and moon shine, +into which friendly people have already entered. + +Hitherto I have been the victim of trifles,--which is the fate +and the chief objection to traveling. Days are absorbed in +precious nothings. But now that I am in some sort a citizen, of +Manchester, and also of Liverpool (for there also I am to enter +on lodgings tomorrow, at 56 Stafford Street, Islington), perhaps +the social heart of this English world will include me also in +its strong and healthful circulations. I get the best letters +from home by the last steamers, and was much occupied in +Liverpool yesterday in seeing Dr. Nichol of Glasgow, who was to +sail in the "Acadia," and in giving him credentials to some +Americans. I find here a very kind reception from your friends, +as they emphatically are,--Ireland, Espinasse, Miss Jewsbury, Dr. +Hodgson, and a circle expanding on all sides outward,--and Mrs. +Paulet at Liverpool. I am learning there also to know friendly +faces, and a certain Roscoe Club has complimented me with its +privileges. The oddest part of my new position is my alarming +penny correspondence, which, what with welcomes, invitations to +lecture, proffers of hospitality, suggestions from good +Swedenborgists and others for my better guidance touching the +titles of my discourses, &c., &c., all requiring answers, +threaten to eat up a day like a cherry. In this fog and +miscellany, and until the heavenly sun shall give me one beam, +will not you, friend and joy of so many years, send me a quiet +line or two now and then to say that you still smoke your pipe in +peace, side by side with wife and brother also well and smoking, +or able to smoke? Now that I have in some measure calmed down +the astonishment and consternation of seeing your dreams change +into realities, I mean, at my next approximation or perihelion, +to behold you with the most serene and sceptical calmness. + +So give my thanks and true affectionate remembrance to Jane +Carlyle, and my regards also to Dr. Carlyle, whose precise +address please also to send me. + +Ever your loving + R.W.E. + +The address at the top of this note is the best for the present, +as I mean to make this my centre. + + + + +CXXVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 13 November, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Book-parcels were faithfully sent off, +directly after your departure: in regard to one of them I had a +pleasant visit from the proprietor in person,--the young +Swedenborgian Doctor, whom to my surprise I found quite an +agreeable, accomplished secular young gentleman, much given to +"progress of the species," &c., &c.; from whom I suppose you have +yourself heard. The wandering umbrella, still short of an owner, +hangs upon its peg here, without definite outlook. Of yourself +there have come news, by your own Letter, and by various excerpts +from Manchester Newspapers. _Gluck zu!_-- + +This Morning I received the Enclosed, and send it off to you +without farther response. Mudie, if I mistake not, is some small +Bookseller in the Russell-Square region; pray answer him, if you +think him worthy of answer. A dim suspicion haunts me that +perhaps he was the Republisher (or Pirate) of your first set of +_Essays:_ but probably he regards this as a mere office of +untutored friendship on his part. Or possibly I do the poor man +wrong by misremembrance? Chapman could tell. + +I am sunk deep here, in effete Manuscripts, in abstruse +meditations, in confusions old and new; sinking, as I may +describe myself, through stratum after stratum of the Inane,-- +down to one knows not what depth! I unfortunately belong to +the Opposition Party in many points, and am in a minority of +one. To keep silence, therefore, is among the principal duties +at present. + +We had a call from Bancroft, the other evening. A tough Yankee +man; of many worthy qualities more tough than musical; among +which it gratified me to find a certain small under-current of +genial _humor,_ or as it were _hidden laughter,_ not noticed +heretofore. + +My Wife and all the rest of us are well; and do all salute you +with our true wishes, and the hope to have you here again before +long. Do not bother yourself with other than voluntary writing +to me, while there is so much otherwise that you are obliged to +write. If on any point you want advice, information, or other +help that lies within the limits of my strength, command me, now +and always. And so Good be with you; and a happy meeting to us +soon again. + +Yours ever truly, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXXIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 30 November, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--Here is a word for you from Miss Fuller; I send +you the Cover also, though I think there is little or nothing in +that. It contained another little Note for Mazzini; who is +wandering in foreign parts, on paths unknown to me at present. +Pray send my regards to Miss Fuller, when you write. + +We hear of you pretty often, and of your successes with the +Northern populations. We hope for you in London again before +long.--I am busy, if at all, altogether _inarticulately_ in these +days. My respect for _silence,_ my distrust of _Speech,_ seem to +grow upon me. There is a time for both, says Solomon; but we, +in our poor generation, have forgotten one of the "times." + +Here is a Mr. Forster* of Rawdon, or Bradford, in Yorkshire; our +late host in the Autumn time; who expects and longs to be yours +when you come into those parts. + +I am busy with William Conqueror's _Domesday Book_ and with the +commentaries of various blockheads on it:--Ah me! + +All good be with you, and happy news from those dear to you. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +----------- +* Now the Rt. Hon. W E. Forster, M.P. +----------- + + + + +CXXX. Emerson to Carlyle + +2 Fenny Street, Higher Broughton, Manchester +28 December, 1847 + +Dear Carlyle,--I am concerned to discover that Margaret Fuller in +the letter which you forwarded prays me to ask you and Mrs. +Carlyle respecting the Count and Countess Pepoli, who are in Rome +for the winter, whether they would be good for her to know?--That +is pretty nearly the form of her question. As one third of the +winter is gone, and one half will be, before her question can be +answered, I fear, it will have lost some of its pertinence. +Well, it will serve as a token to pass between us, which will +please me if it do not Margaret.--I have had nothing to send you +tidings of. Yet I get the best accounts from home of wife and +babes and friends. I am seeing this England more thoroughly than +I had thought was possible to me. I find this lecturing a key +which opens all doors. I have received everywhere the kindest +hospitality from a great variety of persons. I see many +intelligent and well-informed persons, and some fine geniuses. I +have every day a better opinion of the English, who are a very +handsome and satisfactory race of men, and, in the point of +material performance, altogether incomparable. I have made some +vain attempts to end my lectures, but must go on a little longer. +With kindest regards to the Lady Jane, + +Your friend, + R.W.E. + +Margaret Fuller's address, if anything is to be written, is, Care +of Maquay, Pakenham & Co., Rome. + + + + +CXXXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 30 December, 1847 + +My Dear Emerson,--We are very glad to see your handwriting again, +and learn that you are well, and doing well. Our news of you +hitherto, from the dim Lecture-element, had been satisfactory +indeed, but vague. Go on and prosper. + +I do not much think Miss Fuller would do any great good with the +Pepolis,--even if they are still in Rome, and not at Bologna as +our advices here seemed to indicate. Madam Pepoli is an elderly +Scotch lady, of excellent commonplace vernacular qualities, +hardly of more; the Count, some years younger, and a much airier +man, is on all sides a beautiful _Dilettante,_--little suitable, +I fear, to the serious mind that can recognize him as such! +However, if the people are still in Rome, Miss Fuller can easily +try: Bid Miss Fuller present my Wife's compliments, or mine, or +even _yours_ (for they know all our domesticities here, and are +very intimate, especially Madam with _My_ dame); upon which the +acquaintance is at once made, and can be continued if useful. + +This morning Richard Milnes writes to me for your address; which +I have sent. He is just returned out of Spain; home swiftly to +"vote for the Jew Bill"; is doing hospitalities at Woburn Abbey; +and I suppose will be in Yorkshire (home, near Pontefract) before +long. See him if you have opportunity: a man very easy to _see_ +and get into flowing talk with; a man of much sharpness of +faculty, well tempered by several inches of "Christian _fat_" he +has upon his ribs for covering. One of the idlest, cheeriest, +most gifted of fat little men. + +Tennyson has been here for three weeks; dining daily till he is +near dead;--setting out a Poem withal. He came in to us on +Sunday evening last, and on the preceding Sunday: a truly +interesting Son of Earth, and Son of Heaven,--who has almost lost +his way, among the will-o'-wisps, I doubt; and may flounder ever +deeper, over neck and nose at last, among the quagmires that +abound! I like him well; but can do next to nothing for him. +Milnes, with general co-operation, got him a Pension; and he has +bread and tobacco: but that is a poor outfit for such a soul. +He wants a _task;_ and, alas, that of spinning rhymes, and +naming it "Art" and "high Art," in a Time like ours, will never +furnish him. + +For myself I have been entirely _idle,_--I dare not even say, too +abstrusely _occupied;_ for I have merely been _looking_ at the +Chaos even, not by any means working in it. I have not even read +a Book,--that I liked. All "Literature" has grown inexpressibly +unsatisfactory to me. Better be silent than talk farther in +this mood. + +We are going off, on Saturday come a week, into Hampshire, to +certain Friends you have heard me speak of. Our address, till +the beginning of February, is "Hon. W.B. Baring, Alverstoke, +Gosport, Hants." My Wife sends you many kind regards; remember +us across the Ocean too;--and be well and busy till we meet. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +Last night there arrived No. 1 of the _Massachusetts Review:_ +beautiful paper and print; and very promising otherwise. In the +Introduction I well recognized the hand; in the first Article +too,--not in any of the others. _Faustum sit._ + + + + +CXXXII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Ambleside, 26 February, 1848 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I am here in Miss Martineau's house, and having +seen a good deal of England, and lately a good deal of Scotland +too, I am tomorrow to set forth again for Manchester, and +presently for London. Yesterday, I saw Wordsworth for a good +hour and a half, which he did not seem to grudge, for he talked +freely and fast, and--bating his cramping Toryism and what +belongs to it--wisely enough. He is in rude health, and, though +seventy-seven years old, says he does not feel his age in any +particular. Miss Martineau is in excellent health and spirits, +though just now annoyed by the hesitations of Murray to publish +her book;* but she confides infinitely in her book, which is the +best fortune. But I please myself not a little that I shall in a +few days see you again, and I will give you an account of my +journey. I have heard almost nothing of your late weeks,--but +that is my fault,--only I heard with sorrow that your wife had +been ill, and could not go with you on your Christmas holidays. +Now may her good days have come again! I say I have heard +nothing of your late days; of your early days, of your genius, +of your influence, I cease not to hear and to see continually, +yea, often am called upon to resist the same with might and main. +But I will not pester you with it now.--Miss Martineau, who is +most happily placed here, and a model of housekeeping, sends +kindest remembrances to you both. + +Yours ever, + R. W. Emerson. + +--------- +* "Eastern Life, Past and Present." +--------- + + + + +CXXXIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 28 February, 1848 + +Dear Emerson,--We are delighted to hear of you again at first +hand: our last traditions represented you at Edinburgh, and left +the prospect of your return hither very vague. I have only time +for one word tonight: to say that your room is standing vacant +ever since you quitted it,--ready to be lighted up with all +manner of physical and moral _fires_ that the place will yield; +and is in fact _your_ room, and expects to be accounted such.--I +know not specially what your operations in this quarter are to +be; but whatever they are, or the arrangements necessary for +them, surely it is here that you must alight again in the big +Babel, and deliberately adjust what farther is to be done. +Write to us what day you are to arrive; and the rest is all +already managed. + +Jane has never yet got out since the cold took her; but she has +at no time been so ill as is frequent with her in these winter +disorders; she is now steadily improving, and we expect will +come out with the sun and the green leaves,--as she usually does. +I too caught an ugly cold, and, what is very uncommon with me, a +kind of cough, while down in Hampshire; which, with other +inarticulate matters, has kept me in a very mute abstruse +condition all this while; so that, for many weeks past, I have +properly had no history,--except such as trees in winter, and +other merely passive objects may have. That is not an agreeable +side of the page; but I find it indissolubly attached to the +other: no historical leaf with me but has them _both!_ Reading +does next to nothing for me at present, neither will thinking or +even dreaming rightly prosper; of no province can I be quite +master except of the _silent_ one, in such a case. One feels +there, at last, as if quite annihilated; and takes up arms again +(the poor goose-quill is no great things of a weapon to arm +with!) as if in a kind of sacred despair. + +All people are in a sort of joy-dom over the new French Republic, +which has descended suddenly (or shall we say, _ascended_ alas?) +out of the Immensities upon us; showing once again that the +righteous Gods do yet live and reign! It is long years since I +have felt any such deep-seated pious satisfaction at a public +event. Adieu: come soon; and warn us when. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXXXIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +2 Fenny St., Manchester, 2 March, Thursday [1848] + +Dear Friend,--I hope to set forward today for London, and to +arrive there some time tonight. I am to go first to Chapman's +house, where I shall lodge for a time. If it is too noisy, I +shall move westward. But I hope you are to be at home tomorrow, +for if I prosper, I shall come and beg a dinner with you,--is it +not at five o'clock? I am sorry you have no better news to tell +me of your health,--your own and your wife's. Tell her I shall +surely report you to Alcott, who will have his revenge. Thanks +that you keep the door so wide open for me still. I shall always +come in. + +Ever yours, + R.W.E. + + + + +CXXXV. Emerson to Carlyle +Monday, P.M., 19 June, 1848 + +Dear Carlyle,--Mrs. Crowe of Edinburgh, an excellent lady, known +to you and to many good people, wishes me to go to you with her. + +I tell her that I believe you relax the reins of labor as early +as one hour after noon, and I propose one o'clock on Thursday for +the invasion. If you are otherwise engaged, you must send me +word. Otherwise, we shall come. + +It was sad to hear no good news last evening from Jane Carlyle. +I heartily hope the night brought sleep, and the morning better +health to her. + +Yours always, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 20 June, 1848 + +Dear Emerson,--We shall be very glad to become acquainted with +Mrs. Crowe, of whom already by report we know many favorable +things. Brown (of Portobello, Edinburgh) had given us intimation +of her kind purposes towards Chelsea; and now on Thursday you +(please the Pigs) shall see the adventure achieved. Two o'clock, +not one, is the hour when labor ceases here,--if, alas, there be +any "labor" so much as got begun; which latter is often enough +the sad case. But at either hour we shall be ready for you. + +I hope you penetrated the Armida Palace, and did your devoir to +the sublime Duchess and her Luncheon yesterday! I cannot without +a certain internal amusement (foreign enough to my present humor) +represent to myself such a conjunction of opposite stars! But you +carry a new image off with you, and are a gainer, you. _Allons._ + +My Papers here are in a state of distraction, state of despair! +I see not what is to become of them and me. + +Yours ever truly, + T. Carlyle + +My Wife arose without headache on Monday morning; but feels +still a good deal beaten;--has not had "such a headache" for +several years. + + + + +CXXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, Friday [23 June, 1848] + +Dear Emerson,--I forgot to say, last night, that you are to dine +with us on Sunday; that after our call on the Lady Harriet* we +will take a stroll through the Park, look at the Sunday +population, and find ourselves here at five o'clock for the +above important object. Pray remember, therefore, and no excuse! +In haste. + +Yours ever truly, + T. Carlyle + +------------- +* Lady Ashburton +------------- + + + + +CXXXVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 6 December, 1848 + +Dear Emerson,--We received your Letter* duly, some time ago, with +many welcomes; and have as you see been too remiss in answering +it. Not from forgetfulness, if you will take my word; no, but +from many causes, too complicated to articulate, and justly +producing an indisposition to put pen to paper at all! Never was +I more silent than in these very months; and, with reason too, +for the world at large, and my own share of it in small, are both +getting more and more unspeakable with any convenience! In +health we of this household are about as well as usual;--and look +across to the woods of Concord with more light than we had, +realizing for ourselves a most mild and friendly picture there. +Perhaps it is quite as well that you are left alone of foreign +interference, even of a Letter from Chelsea, till you get your +huge bale of English reminiscences assorted a little. Nobody +except me seems to have heard from you; at least the rest, in +these parts, all plead destitution when I ask for news. What you +saw and suffered and enjoyed here will, if you had once got it +properly warehoused, be new wealth to you for many years. Of one +impression we fail not here: admiration of your pacific virtues, +of gentle and noble tolerance, often sorely tried in this place! +Forgive me my ferocities; you do not quite know what I suffer in +these latitudes, or perhaps it would be even easier for you. +Peace for me, in a Mother of Dead Dogs like this, there is not, +was not, will not be,--till the battle itself end; which, +however, is a sure outlook, and daily growing a nearer one. + +---------- +* The letter is missing, but a fragment of the rough draft of it +exists, dated Concord, 2 October, 1848. Emerson had returned +home in July, and he begins: "'T is high time, no doubt, long +since, that you heard from me, and if there were good news in +America for you, you would be sure to hear. All goes at heavy +trot with us... I fell again quickly into my obscure habits, more +fit for me than the fine things I had seen. I made my best +endeavor to praise the rich country I had seen, and its +excellent, energetic, polished people. And it is very easy for +me to do so. England is the country of success, and success has +a great charm for me, more than for those I talk with at home. +But they were obstinate to know if the English were superior to +their possessions, and if the old religion warmed their hearts, +and lifted a little the mountain of wealth. So I enumerated the +list of brilliant persons I had seen, and the [break in MS.]. +But the question returned. Did you find kings and priests? Did +you find sanctities and beauties that took away your memory, and +sent you home a changed man with new aims, and with a discontent +of your old pastures?" + +Here the fragment ends. Emerson's answer to these questions may be +found in the chapter entitled "Results," in his _English Traits._ +---------- + +Nay, there is another practical question,--but it is from the +female side of the house to the female side,--and in fact +concerns Indian meal, upon which Mrs. Emerson, or you, or the +Miller of Concord (if he have any tincture of philosophy) are now +to instruct us! The fact is, potatoes having vanished here, we +are again, with motives large and small, trying to learn the use +of Indian meal; and indeed do eat it daily to meat at dinner, +though hitherto with considerable despair. Question _first,_ +therefore: Is there by nature a _bitter_ final taste, which +makes the throat smart, and disheartens much the apprentice in +Indian meal;--or is it accidental, and to be avoided? We surely +anticipate the latter answer; but do not yet see how. At first +we were taught the meal, all ground on your side of the water, +had got fusty, _raw;_ an effect we are well used to in oaten and +other meals but, last year, we had a bushel of it ground _here,_ +and the bitter taste was there as before (with the addition of +much dirt and sand, our millstones I suppose being too soft);-- +whereupon we incline to surmise that there is, perhaps, as in the +case of oats, some pellicle or hull that ought to be _rejected_ +in making the meal? Pray ask some philosophic Miller, if Mrs. +Emerson or you do not know;--and as a corollary this _second_ +question: What is the essential difference between _white_ (or +brown-gray-white) Indian Meal and _yellow_ (the kind we now have; +beautiful as new Guineas, but with an ineffaceable tastekin of +_soot_ in it)?--And question _third,_ which includes all: How to +cook _mush_ rightly, at least without bitter? _Long_-continued +boiling seems to help the bitterness, but does not cure it. Let +some oracle speak! I tell all people, our staff of life is in +the Mississippi Valley henceforth;--and one of the truest +benefactors were an American Minerva who could teach us to cook +this meal; which our people at present (I included) are +unanimous in finding nigh uneatable, and loudly exclaimable +against! Elihu Burritt had a string of recipes that went through +all newspapers three years ago; but never sang there oracle of +longer ears than that,--totally destitute of practical +significance to any creature here! + +And now enough of questioning. Alas, alas, I have a quite other +batch of sad and saddest considerations,--on which I must not so +much as enter at present! Death has been very busy in this +little circle of ours within these few days. You remember +Charles Buller, to whom I brought you over that night at the +Barings' in Stanhope Street? He died this day week, almost quite +unexpectedly; a sore loss to all that knew him personally, and +his gladdening sunny presence in many circles here; a sore loss +to the political people too, for he was far the cleverest of all +Whig men, and indeed the only genial soul one can remember in +that department of things.* We buried him yesterday; and now +see what new thing has come. Lord Ashburton, who had left his +mother well in Hampshire ten hours before, is summoned from poor +Buller's funeral by telegraph; hurries back, finds his mother, +whom he loved much, already dead! She was a Miss Bingham, I +think, from Pennsylvania, perhaps from Philadelphia itself. You +saw her; but the first sight by no means told one all or the +best worth that was in that good Lady. We are quite bewildered +by our own regrets, and by the far painfuler sorrow of those +closely related to these sudden sorrows. Of which let me be +silent for the present;--and indeed of all things else, for +_speech,_ inadequate mockery of one's poor meaning, is quite a +burden to me just now! + +--------- +* The reader of Carlyle's _Reminiscences,_ and of Froude's +volumes of his biography, is familiar with the close relations +that had existed between Buller and Carlyle. +---------- + +Neuberg* comes hither sometimes; a welcome, wise kind of man. +Poor little Espinasse still toils cheerily at the oar, and +various friends of yours are about us. Brother John did send +through Chapman all the _Dante,_ which we calculate you have +received long ago: he is now come to Town; doing a Preface, +&c., which also will be sent to you, and just about publishing.-- +Helps, who has been alarmingly ill, and touring on the Rhine +since we were his guests, writes to me yesterday from Hampshire +about sending you a new Book of his. I instructed him How. + +Adieu, dear Emerson; do not forget us, or forget to think +as kindly as you can of us, while we continue in this +world together. + +Yours ever affectionately, + T. Carlyle + +--------- +* Mr. Ireland, in his _Recollections,_ p. 62, gives an +interesting account of Mr. Neuberg,--a highly cultivated German, +who assisted Carlyle in some of the later literary labors of his +life. Neuberg died in 1867, and in a letter to his sister of +that year Carlyle says: "No kinder friend had I in this world; +no man of my day, I believe, had so faithful, loyal, and willing +a helper as he generously was to me for the last twenty or +more years." +----------- + + + + +CXXXIX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 28 January, 1849 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Here in Boston for the day, though in no fit +place for writing, you shall have, since the steamer goes +tomorrow, a hasty answer to at least one of your questions.... + +You tell me heavy news of your friends, and of those who were +friendly to me for your sake. And I have found farther +particulars concerning them in the newspapers. Buller I have +known by name ever since he was in America with Lord Durham, and +I well remember his face and figure at Mr. Baring's. Even +England cannot spare an accomplished man. + +Since I had your letter, and, I believe, by the same steamer, +your brother's _Dante,_* complete within and without, has come to +me, most welcome. I heartily thank him. 'T is a most +workmanlike book, bearing every mark of honest value. I thank +him for myself, and I thank him, in advance, for our people, who +are sure to learn their debt to him, in the coming months and +years. I sent the book, after short examination, the same day, +to New York, to the Harpers, lest their edition should come out +without Prolegomena. But they answered, the next day, that they +had already received directly the same matter;--yet have not up +to this time returned my book. For the Indian corn,--I have been +to see Dr. Charles T. Jackson (my wife's brother, and our best +chemist, inventor of etherization), who tells me that the reason +your meal is bitter is, that all the corn sent to you from us is +kiln-dried here, usually at a heat of three hundred degrees, +which effectually kills the starch or diastase (?) which would +otherwise become sugar. This drying is thought necessary to +prevent the corn from becoming musty in the contingency of a long +voyage. He says, if it should go in the steamer, it would arrive +sound without previous drying. I think I will try that +experiment, shortly on a box or a barrel of our Concord maize, as +Lidian Emerson confidently engages to send you accurate recipes +for johnny-cake, mush, and hominy. + +--------- +* The _Inferno_ of Dante, a translation in prose by John Carlyle; +an excellent piece of work, still in demand. +--------- + +Why did you not send me word of Clough's hexameter poem, which I +have now received and read with much joy.* But no, you will +never forgive him his metres. He is a stout, solid, reliable man +and friend,--I knew well; but this fine poem has taken me by +surprise. I cannot find that your journals have yet discovered +its existence. With kindest remembrances to Jane Carlyle, and +new thanks to John Carlyle, your friend, + + --R.W. Emerson + +---------- +* "The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich." +---------- + + + + +CXL. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 19 April, 1849 + +My Dear Emerson,--Today is American Postday; and by every rule +and law,--even if all laws but those of Cocker were abolished +from this universe,--a word from me is due to you! Twice I have +heard since I spoke last: prompt response about the Philadelphia +Bill; exact performance of your voluntary promise,--Indian Corn +itself is now here for a week past.... + +Still more interesting is the barrel of genuine Corn ears,-- +Indian Cobs of edible grain, from the Barn of Emerson himself! +It came all safe and right, according to your charitable program; +without cost or trouble to us of any kind; not without curious +interest and satisfaction! The recipes contained in the +precedent letter, duly weighed by the competent jury of +housewives (at least by my own Wife and Lady Ashburton), were +judged to be of decided promise, reasonable-looking every one of +them; and now that the stuff itself is come, I am happy to +assure you that it forms a new epoch for us all in the Maize +department: we find the grain _sweet,_ among the sweetest, with +a touch even of the taste of _nuts_ in it, and profess with +contrition that properly we have never tasted Indian Corn before. +Millers of due faculty (with millstones of _iron_) being scarce +in the Cockney region, and even cooks liable to err, the +Ashburtons have on their resources undertaken the brunt of the +problem one of their own Surrey or Hampshire millers is to grind +the stuff, and their own cook, a Frenchman commander of a whole +squadron, is to undertake the dressing according to the rules. +Yesterday the Barrel went off to their country place in Surrey,-- +a small Bag of select ears being retained here, for our own +private experimenting;--and so by and by we shall see what comes +of it.--I on my side have already drawn up a fit proclamation of +the excellences of this invaluable corn, and admonitions as to +the benighted state of English eaters in regard to it;--to appear +in _Fraser's Magazine,_ or I know not where, very soon. It is +really a small contribution towards World-History, this small act +of yours and ours: there is no doubt to me, now that I taste the +real grain, but all Europe will henceforth have to rely more and +more upon your Western Valleys and this article. How beautiful +to think of lean tough Yankee settlers, tough as gutta-percha, +with most occult unsubduable fire in their belly, steering over +the Western Mountains, to annihilate the jungle, and bring bacon +and corn out of it for the Posterity of Adam! The Pigs in about +a year eat up all the rattlesnakes for miles round: a most +judicious function on the part of the Pigs. Behind the Pigs +comes Jonathan with his all-conquering ploughshare,--glory to him +too! Oh, if we were not a set of Cant-ridden blockheads, there +is no _Myth_ of Athene or Herakles equal to this _fact;_--which I +suppose _will_ find its real "Poets" some day or other; when +once the Greek, Semitic, and multifarious other Cobwebs are swept +away a little! Well, we must wait.--For the rest, if this +skillful Naturalist and you will make any more experiments on +Indian Corn for us, might I not ask that you would try for a +method of preserving _the meal_ in a sound state for us? +Oatmeal, which would spoil directly too, is preserved all year by +kiln-drying the grain before it is ground,--parching it till it +is almost _brown,_ sometimes the Scotch Highlanders, by intense +parching, can keep their oatmeal good for a series of years. No +Miller here at present is likely to produce such beautiful meal +as some of the American specimens I have seen:--if possible, we +must learn to get the grain over in the shape of proper durable +meal. At all events, let your Friend charitably make some +inquiry into the process of millerage, the possibilities of it +for meeting our case;--and send us the result some day, on a +separate bit of paper. With which let us end, for the present. + +Alas, I have yet written nothing; am yet a long way off writing, +I fear! Not for want of matter, perhaps, but for redundance of +it; I feel as if I had the whole world to write yet, with the +day fast bending downwards on me, and did not know where to +begin,--in what manner to address the deep-sunk populations of +the Theban Land. Any way my Life is very _grim,_ on these terms, +and is like to be; God only knows what farther quantity of +braying in the mortar this foolish clay of mine may yet need!-- +They are printing a third Edition of _Cromwell;_ that bothered +me for some weeks, but now I am over with that, and the Printer +wholly has it: a sorrowful, not now or ever a joyful thing to +me, that. The _stupor_ of my fellow blockheads, for Centuries +back, presses too heavy upon that,--as upon many things, O +Heavens! People are about setting up some _Statue of Cromwell,_ +at St. Ives, or elsewhere: the King-Hudson Statue is never yet +set up; and the King himself (as you may have heard) has been +_discovered_ swindling. I advise all men not to erect a statue +for Cromwell just now. Macaulay's _History_ is also out, running +through the fourth edition: did I tell you last time that I had +read it,--with wonder and amazement? Finally, it seems likely +Lord John Russell will shortly walk out (forever, it is hoped), +and Sir R. Peel come in; to make what effort is in him towards +delivering us from the _pedant_ method of treating Ireland. The +_beginning,_ as I think, of salvation (if he can prosper a +little) to England, and to all Europe as well. For they will all +have to learn that man does need government, and that an able- +bodied starving beggar is and remains (whatever Exeter Hall may +say to it) a _Slave_ destitute of a _Master;_ of which facts +England, and convulsed Europe, are fallen foundly ignorant in +these bad ages, and will plunge ever deeper till they rediscover +the same. Alas, alas, the Future for us is not to be made of +_butter,_ as the Platforms prophesy; I think it will be harder +than steel for some ages! No noble age was ever a soft one, nor +ever will or can be.--Your beautiful curious little discourse +(report of a discourse) about the English was sent me by Neuberg; +I thought it, in my private heart, one of the best words (for +_hidden_ genius lodged in it) I had ever heard; so sent it to +the _Examiner,_ from which it went to the _Times_ and all the +other Papers: an excellent sly little word. + +Clough has gone to Italy; I have seen him twice,--could not +manage his hexameters, though I like the man himself, and +hope much of him. "Infidelity" has broken out in Oxford +itself,--immense emotion in certain quarters in consequence, +virulent outcries about a certain "Sterling Club," altogether +a secular society! + +Adieu, dear Emerson; I had much more to say, but there is no +room. O, forgive me, forgive me all trespasses,--and love me +what you can! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXLI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, N.B., 13 August, 1849 + +Dear Emerson,--By all laws of human computation, I owe you a +letter, and have owed, any time these seven weeks: let me now +pay a little, and explain. Your _second_ Barrel of Indian Corn +arrived also perfectly fresh, and of admirable taste and quality; +the very bag of new-ground meal was perfect; and the "popped +corn" ditto, when it came to be discovered: with the whole of +which admirable materials such order was taken as promised to +secure "the greatest happiness to the greatest number"; and due +silent thanks were tendered to the beneficence of the unwearied +Sender:--but all this, you shall observe, had to be done in the +thick of a universal packing and household bustle; I just on the +wing for a "Tour in Ireland," my Wife too contemplating a run to +Scotland shortly after, there to meet me on my return. All this +was seven good weeks ago: I hoped somewhere in my Irish +wayfarings to fling you off a Letter; but alas, I reckoned there +quite without my host (strict "host," called _Time_), finding +nowhere half a minute left to me; and so now, having got home to +my Mother, not to see my Wife yet for some days, it is my +_earliest_ leisure, after all, that I employ in this purpose. I +have been terribly knocked about too,--jolted in Irish cars, +bothered almost to madness with Irish balderdash, above all kept +on dreadfully short allowance of sleep;--so that now first, when +fairly down to rest, all aches and bruises begin to be fairly +sensible; and my clearest feeling at this present is the +uncomfortable one, "that I am not Caliban, but a Cramp": +terribly cramped indeed, if I could tell you everything! + +What the other results of this Irish Tour are to be for me I +cannot in the least specify. For one thing, I seem to be farther +from _speech_ on any subject than ever: such masses of chaotic +ruin everywhere fronted me, the general fruit of long-continued +universal falsity and folly; and such mountains of delusion yet +possessing all hearts and tongues I could do little that was not +even _noxious,_ except _admire_ in silence the general +"Bankruptcy of Imposture" as one there finds and sees it come to +pass, and think with infinite sorrow of the tribulations, futile +wrestlings, tumults, and disasters which yet await that +unfortunate section of Adam's Posterity before any real +improvement can take place among them. Alas, alas! The Gospels +of Political Economy, of _Laissez-faire,_ No-Government, Paradise +to all comers, and so many fatal Gospels,--generally, one may +say, all the Gospels of this blessed "New Era,"--will first have +to be tried, and found wanting. With a quantity of written and +uttered nonsense, and of suffered and inflicted misery, which one +sinks fairly dumb to estimate! A kind of comfort it is, however, +to see that "Imposture" _has_ fallen openly "bankrupt," here as +everywhere else in our old world; that no dexterity of human +tinkering, with all the Parliamentary Eloquence and Elective +Franchises in nature, will ever set it on its feet again, to go +many yards more; but that _its_ goings and currencies in this +Earth have as good as ceased for ever and ever! God is great; +all Lies do now, as from the first, travel incessantly towards +Chaos, and there at length lodge! In some parts of Ireland (the +Western "insolvent Unions," some twenty-seven of them in all), +within a trifle of _one half_ of the whole population are on +Poor-Law rations (furnished by the British Government, L1,100 a +week furnished here, L1,300 there, L800 there); the houses stand +roofless, the lands unstocked, uncultivated, the landlords hidden +from bailiffs, living sometimes "on the hares of their domain": +such a state of things was never witnessed under this sky before; +and, one would humbly expect, cannot last long!--What is to be +done? asks every one; incapable of _hearing_ any answer, were +there even one ready for imparting to him. "_Blacklead_ these +two million idle beggars," I sometimes advised, "and sell them in +Brazil as Niggers,--perhaps Parliament, on sweet constraint, will +allow you to advance them to be Niggers!" In fact, the +Emancipation Societies should send over a deputation or two to +look at _these_ immortal Irish "Freemen," the _ne plus ultra_ of +their class it would perhaps moderate the windpipe of much +eloquence one hears on that subject! Is not this the most +illustrious of all "ages"; making progress of the species at a +grand rate indeed? Peace be with it. + +Waiting for me here, there was a Letter from Miss Fuller in Rome, +written about a month ago; a dignified and interesting Letter; +requesting help with Booksellers for some "History of the late +Italian Revolution" she is about writing; and elegiacally +recognizing the worth of Mazzini and other cognate persons and +things. I instantly set about doing what little seemed in my +power towards this object,--with what result is yet hidden, and +have written to the heroic Margaret: "More power to her elbow!" +as the Irish say. She has a beautiful enthusiasm; and is +perhaps in the right stage of insight for doing that piece of +business well.--Of other persons or interests I will say nothing +till a calmer opportunity; which surely cannot be very long +in coming. + +In four days I am to rejoin my wife; after which some bits of +visits are to be paid in this North Country; necessary most of +them, not likely to be profitable almost any. In perhaps a month +I expect to be back in Chelsea; whither direct a word if you are +still beneficent enough to think of such a Castaway! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +I got Thoreau's Book; and meant well to read it, but have not +yet succeeded, though it went with me through all Ireland: tell +him so, please. Too Jean-Paulish, I found it hitherto. + + + + +CXLII. Carlyle to Emerson +Chelsea, 19 July, 1850 + +My Dear Emerson, My Friend, my Friend,--You behold before you a +remorseful man! It is well-nigh a year now since I despatched +some hurried rag of paper to you out of Scotland, indicating +doubtless that I would speedily follow it with a longer letter; +and here, when gray Autumn is at hand again, I have still written +nothing to you, heard nothing from you! It is miserable to think +of:--and yet it is a fact, and there is no denying of it; and so +we must let it lie. If it please Heaven, the like shall not +occur again. "Ohone Arooh!" as the Irish taught me to say, +"Ohone Arooh!" + +The fact is, my life has been black with care and toil,--labor +above board and far worse labor below;--I have hardly had a +heavier year (overloaded too with a kind of "health" which may be +called frightful): to "burn my own smoke" in some measure, has +really been all I was up to; and except on sheer immediate +compulsion I have not written a word to any creature.-- +Yesternight I finished the last of these extraordinary +_Pamphlets;_ am about running off somewhither into the deserts, +of Wales or Scotland, Scandinavia or still remoter deserts;--and +my first signal of revived reminiscence is to you. + +Nay I have not at any time forgotten you, be that justice done +the unfortunate: and though I see well enough what a great deep +cleft divides us, in our ways of practically looking at this +world,--I see also (as probably you do yourself) where the rock- +strata, miles deep, unite again; and the two poor souls are at +one. Poor devils!--Nay if there were no point of agreement at +all, and I were more intolerant "of ways of thinking" than I even +am,--yet has not the man Emerson, from old years, been a Human +Friend to me? Can I ever forget, or think otherwise than +lovingly of the man Emerson? No more of this. Write to me in +your first good hour; and say that there is still a brother-soul +left to me alive in this world, and a kind thought surviving far +over the sea!--Chapman, with due punctuality at the time of +publication, sent me the _Representative Men;_ which I read in +the becoming manner: you now get the Book offered you for a +shilling, at all railway stations; and indeed I perceive the +word "representative man"' (as applied to the late tragic loss we +have had in Sir Robert Peel) has been adopted by the Able- +Editors, and circulates through Newspapers as an appropriate +household word, which is some compensation to you for the piracy +you suffer from the Typographic Letter-of-marque men here. I +found the Book a most finished clear and perfect set of +_Engravings in the line manner;_ portraitures full of +_likeness,_ and abounding in instruction and materials for +reflection to me: thanks always for such a Book; and Heaven +send us many more of them. _Plato,_ I think, though it is the +most admired by many, did least for me: little save Socrates +with his clogs and big ears remains alive with me from it. +_Swedenborg_ is excellent in _likeness;_ excellent in many +respects;--yet I said to myself, on reaching your general +conclusion about the man and his struggles: "_Missed_ the +consummate flower and divine ultimate elixir of Philosophy, say +you? By Heaven, in clutching at _it,_ and almost getting it, he +has tumbled into Bedlam,--which is a terrible _miss,_ if it were +never so _near!_ A miss fully as good as a mile, I should say!" +--In fact, I generally dissented a little about the _end_ of all +these Essays; which was notable, and not without instructive +interest to me, as I had so lustily shouted "Hear, hear!" all the +way from the beginning up to that stage.--On the whole, let us +have another Book with your earliest convenience: that is the +modest request one makes of you on shutting this. + +I know not what I am now going to set about: the horrible +barking of the universal dog-kennel (awakened by these +_Pamphlets_) must still itself again; my poor nerves must +recover themselves a little:--I have much more to say; and +by Heaven's blessing must try to get it said in some way if +I live.-- + +Bostonian Prescott is here, infinitely _lionized_ by a mob of +gentlemen; I have seen him in two places or three (but forbore +speech): the Johnny-cake is good, the twopence worth of currants +in it too are good; but if you offer it as a bit of baked +Ambrosia, _Ach Gott!_-- + +Adieu, dear Emerson, forgive, and love me a little. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXLIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 14 November, 1850 + +Dear Emerson,--You are often enough present to my thoughts; but +yesterday there came a little incident which has brought you +rather vividly upon the scene for me. A certain "Mr. ---" from +Boston sends us, yesterday morning by post, a Note of yours +addressed to Mazzini, whom he cannot find; and indicates that he +retains a similar one addressed to myself, and (in the most +courteous, kindly, and dignified manner, if Mercy prevent not) is +about carrying it off with him again to America! To give Mercy a +chance, I by the first opportunity get under way for Morley's +Hotel, the address of Mr. ---; find there that Mr.--, since +morning, _has been_ on the road towards Liverpool and America, +and that the function of Mercy is quite extinct in this instance! +My reflections as I wandered home again were none of the +pleasantest. Of this Mr. --- I had heard some tradition, as of +an intelligent, accomplished, and superior man; such a man's +acquaintance, of whatever complexion he be, is and was always a +precious thing to me, well worth acquiring where possible; not +to say that any friend of yours, whatever his qualities +otherwise, carries with him an imperative key to all bolts and +locks of mine, real or imaginary. In fact I felt punished;--and +who knows, if the case were seen into, whether I deserve it? +What "business" it was that deprived me of a call from Mr. ---, +or of the possibility of calling on him, I know very well,--and +---, the little dog, and others know! But the fact in that +matter is very far different indeed from the superficial +semblance; and I appeal to all the _gentlemen_ that are in +America for a candid interpretation of the same. "Eighteen +million bores,"--good Heavens don't I know how many of that +species we also have; and how with us, as with you, the +difference between them and the Eighteen thousand noble-men and +non-bores is immeasurable and inconceivable; and how, with us as +with you, the _latter_ small company, sons of the Empyrean, will +have to fling the former huge one, sons of Mammon and Mud, into +some kind of chains again, reduce them to some kind of silence +again,--unless the old Mud-Demons are to rise and devour us all? +Truly it is so I construe it: and if --- and the Eighteen +millions are well justified in their anger at me, and the +Eighteen thousand owe me thanks and new love. That is my decided +opinion, in spite of you all! And so, along with ---, probably +in the same ship with him, there shall go my protest against the +conduct of ---; and the declaration that to the last I will +protest! Which will wind up the matter (without any word of +yours on it) at this time.--For the rest, though --- sent me his +Pamphlet, it is a fact I have not read a word of it, nor shall +ever read. My Wife read it; but I was away, with far other +things in my head; and it was "lent to various persons" till it +died!--Enough and ten times more than enough of all that. Let me +on this last slip of paper give you some response to the Letter* +I got in Scotland, under the silence of the bright autumn sun, in +my Mother's house, and read there. + +-------- +* This letter is missing. +-------- + +You are bountiful abundantly in your reception of those _Latter +Day Pamphlets;_ and right in all you say of them;--and yet +withal you are not right, my Friend, but I am! Truly it does +behove a man to know the inmost resources of this universe, and, +for the sake both of his peace and of his dignity, to possess his +soul in patience, and look nothing doubting (nothing wincing +even, if that be his humor) upon all things. For it is most +indubitable there is good in all;--and if you even see an Oliver +Cromwell assassinated, it is certain you may get a cartload of +turnips from his carcass. Ah me, and I suppose we had too much +forgotten all this, or there had not been a man like you sent to +show it us so emphatically! Let us well remember it; and yet +remember too that it is _not_ good always, or ever, to be "at +ease in Zion"; good often to be in fierce rage in Zion; and +that the vile Pythons of this Mud-World do verily require to have +sun-arrows shot into them and red-hot pokers struck through them, +according to occasion: woe to the man that carries either of +these weapons, and does not use it in their presence! Here, at +this moment, a miserable Italian organ-grinder has struck up the +_Marseillaise_ under my window, for example: was the +_Marseillaise_ fought out on a bed of down, or is it worth +nothing when fought? On those wretched _Pamphlets_ I set no +value at all, or even less than none: to me their one benefit +is, my own heart is clear of them (a benefit not to be despised, +I assure you!)--and in the Public, athwart this storm of curses, +and emptyings of vessels of dishonor, I can already perceive that +it is all well enough there too in reference to them; and the +controversy of the Eighteen millions _versus_ the Eighteen +thousands, or Eighteen units, is going on very handsomely in that +quarter of it, for aught I can see! And so, Peace to the brave +that are departed; and, Tomorrow to fresh fields and pastures new!-- + +I was in Wales, as well as Scotland, during Autumn time; lived +three weeks within wind of St. Germanus's old "College" (Fourteen +Hundred years of age or so) and also not far from _Merthyr +Tydvil,_ Cyclops' Hell, sootiest and horridest avatar of the +Industrial Mammon I had ever anywhere seen; went through the +Severn Valley; at Bath stayed a night with Landor (a proud and +high old man, who charged me with express remembrances for you); +saw Tennyson too, in Cumberland, with his new Wife; and other +beautiful recommendable and 'questionable things;--and was +dreadfully tossed about, and torn almost to tatters by the +manifold brambles of my way: and so at length am here, a much- +lamed man indeed! Oh my Friend, have tolerance for me, have +sympathy with me; you know not quite (I imagine) what a burden +mine is, or perhaps you would find this duty, which you always +do, a little easier done! Be happy, be busy beside your still +waters, and think kindly of me there. My nerves, health I call +them, are in a sad state of disorder: alas, that is nine tenths +of all the battle in this world. Courage, courage!--My Wife +sends salutations to you and yours. Good be with you all always. + +Your affectionate, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXLIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 8 July, 1851 + +Dear Emerson,--Don't you still remember very well that there is +such a man? I know you do, and will do. But it is a ruinously +long while since we have heard a word from each other;--a state +of matters that ought immediately to _cease._ It was your turn, +I think, to write? It was somebody's turn! Nay I heard lately +you complained of bad eyes; and were grown abstinent of writing. +Pray contradict me this. I cannot do without some regard from +you while we are both here. Spite of your many sins, you are +among the most human of all the beings I now know in the world;-- +who are a very select set, and are growing ever more so, I can +inform you! + +In late months, feeling greatly broken and without heart for +anything weighty, I have been upon a _Life of John Sterling;_ +which will not be good for much, but will as usual gratify me by +taking itself off my hands: it was one of the things I felt a +kind of obligation to do, and so am thankful to have done. Here +is a patch of it lying by me, if you will look at a specimen. +There are four hundred or more pages (prophesies the Printer), a +good many _Letters_ and Excerpts in the latter portion of the +volume. Already half printed, wholly written; but not to come +out for a couple of months yet,--all trade being at a stand till +this sublime "Crystal Palace" go its ways again.--And now since +we are upon the business, I wish you would mention it to E.P. +Clark (is not that the name?) next time you go to Boston: if +that friendly clear-eyed man have anything to say in reference to +it and American Booksellers, let him say and do; he may have a +Copy for anybody in about a month: if _he_ have nothing to say, +then let there be nothing anywhere said. For, mark O +Philosopher, I expressly and with emphasis prohibit _you_ at this +stage of our history, and henceforth, unless I grow poor again. +Indeed, indeed, the commercial mandate of the thing (Nature's +little order on that behalf) being once fulfilled (by speaking to +Clark), I do not care a snuff of tobacco how it goes, and will +prefer, here as elsewhere, my night's rest to any amount of +superfluous money. + +This summer, as you may conjecture, has been very noisy with us, +and productive of little,--the "Wind-dust-ry of all Nations" +involving everything in one inane tornado. The very shopkeepers +complain that there is no trade. Such a sanhedrim of windy fools +from all countries of the Globe were surely never gathered in one +city before. But they will go their ways again, they surely +will! One sits quiet in that faith;--nay, looks abroad with a +kind of pathetic grandfatherly feeling over this universal +Children's Ball which the British Nation in these extraordinary +circumstances is giving it self! Silence above all, silence is +very behoveful! I read lately a small old brown French +duodecimo, which I mean to send you by the first chance there is. +The writer is a Capitaine Bossu; the production, a Journal of +his experiences in "La Louisiane," "Oyo" (_Ohio_), and those +regions, which looks very genuine, and has a strange interest to +me, like some fractional Odyssey or letter.* Only a hundred +years ago, and the Mississippi has changed as never valley did: +in 1751 older and stranger, looked at from its present date, than +Balbec or Nineveh! Say what we will, Jonathan is doing miracles +(of a sort) under the sun in these times now passing.--Do you +know _Bartram's Travels?_ This is of the Seventies (1770) or so; +treats of _Florida_ chiefly, has a wondrous kind of floundering +eloquence in it; and has also grown immeasurably _old._ All +American libraries ought to provide themselves with that kind of +book; and keep them as a kind of future _biblical_ article.-- +Finally on this head, can you tell me of any _good_ Book on +California? Good: I have read several bad. But that too is +worthy of some wonder; that too, like the Old Bucaniers, hungers +and thirsts (in ingenuous minds) to have some true record and +description given of it. + +---------- +* Bossu wrote two books which are known to the student of the +history of the settlement of America; one, "Nouveaux Voyages aux +Indes occidentales," Paris, 1768; the other, "Nouveaux Voyages +dans l'Amerique septentrionale," Amsterdam (Paris), 1777. +---------- + +And poor Miss Fuller, was there any _Life_ ever published of her? +or is any competent hand engaged on it? Poor Margaret, I often +remember her; and think how she is asleep now under the surges +of the sea. Mazzini, as you perhaps know, is with us this +summer; comes across once in the week or so, and tells me, or at +least my Wife, all his news. The Roman revolution has made a man +of him,--quite brightened up ever since;--and the best friend +_he_ ever saw, I believe, was that same Quack-President of +France, who relieved him while it was still time. + +My Brother is in Annandale, working hard over _Dante_ at last; +talks of coming up hither shortly; I am myself very ill and +miserable in the _liver_ regions; very tough otherwise,--though +I have now got spectacles for small print in the twilight. _Eheu +fugaces,_--and yet why _Eheu?_ In fact it is better to be +silent.--Adieu, dear Emerson; I expect to get a great deal +brisker by and by,--and in the first place to have a Missive from +Boston again. My Wife sends you many regards. I am as ever,-- +affectionately Yours, + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CXLV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 28 July, 1851 + +My Dear Carlyle,--You must always thank me for silence, be it +never so long, and must put on it the most generous +interpretations. For I am too sure of your genius and goodness, +and too glad that they shine steadily for all, to importune you +to make assurance sure by a private beam very often. There is +very little in this village to be said to you, and, with all my +love of your letters, I think it the kind part to defend you from +our imbecilities,--my own, and other men's. Besides, my eyes are +bad, and prone to mutiny at any hint of white paper. + +And yet I owe you all my story, if story I have. I have been +something of a traveler the last year, and went down the Ohio +River to its mouth; walked nine miles into, and nine miles out +of the Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky,--walked or sailed, for we +crossed small underground streams,--and lost one day's light; +then steamed up the Mississippi, five days, to Galena. In the +Upper Mississippi, you are always in a lake with many islands. + +"The Far West" is the right name for these verdant deserts. On +all the shores, interminable silent forest. If you land, there +is prairie behind prairie, forest behind forest, sites of +nations, no nations. The raw bullion of nature; what we call +"moral" value not yet stamped on it. But in a thousand miles the +immense material values will show twenty or fifty Californias; +that a good ciphering head will make one where he is. Thus at +Pittsburg, on the Ohio, the "Iron" City, whither, from want of +railroads, few Yankees have penetrated, every acre of land has +three or four bottoms; first of rich soil; then nine feet of +bituminous coal; a little lower, fourteen feet of coal; then +iron, or salt; salt springs, with a valuable oil called +petroleum floating on their surface. Yet this acre sells for the +price of any tillage acre in Massachusetts; and, in a year, the +railroads will reach it, east and west.--I came home by the great +Northern Lakes and Niagara. + +No books, a few lectures, each winter, I write and read. In the +spring, the abomination of our Fugitive Slave Bill drove me to +some writing and speech-making, without hope of effect, but to +clear my own skirts. I am sorry I did not print whilst it was +yet time. I am now told that the time will come again, more's +the pity. Now I am trying to make a sort of memoir of Margaret +Fuller, or my part in one;--for Channing and Ward are to do +theirs. Without either beauty or genius, she had a certain +wealth and generosity of nature which have left a kind of claim +on our consciences to build her a cairn. And this reminds me +that I am to write a note to Mazzini on this matter; and, as you +say you see him, you must charge yourself with delivering it. +What we do must be ended by October. You too are working for +Sterling. It is right and kind. I learned so much from the New +York _Tribune,_ and, a few days after, was on the point of +writing to you, provoked by a foolish paragraph which appeared in +Rufus Griswold's Journal, (New York,) purporting that R.W.E. +possessed important letters of Sterling, without which Thomas +Carlyle could not write the Life. What scrap of hearsay about +contents of Sterling's letters to me, or that I had letters, this +paltry journalist swelled into this puff-ball, I know not. He +once came to my house, and, since that time, may have known +Margaret Fuller in New York; but probably never saw any letter +of Sterling's or heard the contents of any. I have not read +again Sterling's letters, which I keep as good Lares in a special +niche, but I have no recollection of anything that would be +valuable to you. For the American Public for the Book, I think +it important that you should take the precise step of sending +Phillips and Sampson the early copy, and at the earliest. I saw +them, and also E.P. Clark, and put them in communication, and +Clark is to write you at once. + +Having got so far in my writing to you, I do not know but I shall +gain heart, and write more letters over sea. You will think my +sloth suicidal enough. So many men as I learned to value in your +country,--so many as offered me opportunities of intercourse,-- +and I lose them all by silence. Arthur Helps is a chief +benefactor of mine. I wrote him a letter by Ward,--who brought +the letter back. I ought to thank John Carlyle, not only for me, +but for a multitude of good men and women here who read his +_Inferno_ duly. W.E. Forster sent me his Penn Pamphlet; I sent +it to Bancroft, who liked it well, only he thought Forster might +have made a still stronger case. Clough I prize at a high rate, +the man and his poetry, but write not. Wilkinson I thought a man +of prodigious talent, who somehow held it and so taught others to +hold it cheap, as we do one of those bushel-basket memories which +school-boys and school-girls often show,--and we stop their +mouths lest they be troublesome with their alarming profusion. +But there is no need of beginning to count the long catalogue. +Kindest, kindest remembrance to my benefactress, also in your +house, and health and strength and victory to you. + +Your affectionate, + Waldo Emerson + + + + +CXLVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Great Malvern, Worcestershire, 25 August, 1851 + +Dear Emerson,--Many thanks for your Letter, which found me here +about a week ago, and gave a full solution to my bibliopolic +difficulties. However sore your eyes, or however taciturn your +mood, there is no delay of writing when any service is to be done +by it! In fact you are very good to me, and always were, in all +manner of ways; for which I do, as I ought, thank the Upper +Powers and you. That truly has been and is one of the +possessions of my life in this perverse epoch of the world.... + +I have sent off by John Chapman a Copy of the _Life of Sterling,_ +which is all printed and ready, but is not to appear till the +first week of October.... Along with the _Sheets_ was a poor +little French Book for you,--Book of a poor Naval _Mississippi_ +Frenchman, one "Bossu," I think; written only a Century ago, yet +which already seemed old as the Pyramids in reference to those +strange fast-growing countries. I read it as a kind of defaced +_romance;_ very thin and lean, but all _true,_ and very +marvelous as such. + +It is above three weeks since my Wife and I left London, (the +Printer having done,) and came hither with the purpose of a month +of what is called "Water Cure"; for which this place, otherwise +extremely pleasant and wholesome, has become celebrated of late +years. Dr. Gully, the pontiff of the business in our Island, +warmly encouraged my purpose so soon as he heard of it; nay, +urgently offered at once that both of us should become his own +guests till the experiment were tried: and here accordingly we +are; I water-curing, assiduously walking on the sunny mountains, +drinking of the clear wells, not to speak of wet wrappages, +solitary sad _steepages,_ and other singular procedures; my Wife +not meddling for her own behoof, but only seeing me do it. These +have been three of the idlest weeks I ever spent, and there is +still one to come: after which we go northward to Lancashire, +and across the Border where my good old Mother still expects me; +and so, after some little visiting and dawdling, hope to find +ourselves home again before September end, and the inexpressible +Glass Palace with its noisy inanity have taken itself quite away +again. It was no increase of ill-health that drove me hither, +rather the reverse; but I have long been minded to try this +thing: and now I think the result will be,--_zero_ pretty +nearly, and one imagination the less. My long walks, my +strenuous idleness, have certainly done me good; nor has the +"water" done me any _ill,_ which perhaps is much to say of it. +For the rest, it is a strange quasi-monastic--godless and yet +_devotional_--way of life which human creatures have here, and +useful to them beyond doubt. I foresee, this "Water Cure," under +better forms, will become the _Ramadhan_ of the overworked +unbelieving English in time coming; an institution they were +dreadfully in want of, this long while!--We had Twisleton* here +(often speaking of you), who is off to America again; will sail, +I think, along with this Letter; a semi-articulate but solid- +minded worthy man. We have other officials and other +_litterateurs_ (T.B. Macaulay in his hired villa for one): but +the mind rather shuns than seeks them, one finds solitary quasi- +devotion preferable, and [Greek], as Pindar had it! + +----------- +* The late Hon. Edward Twisleton, a man of high character and +large attainments, and with a personal disposition that won the +respect and affection of a wide circle of friends on both sides +of the Atlantic. He was the author of a curious and learned +treatise entitled "The Tongue not Essential to Speech," and his +remarkable volume on "The Handwriting of Junius" seems to have +effectually closed a long controversy. +--------- + +Richard Milnes is married, about two weeks ago, and gone to +Vienna for a jaunt. His wife, a Miss Crewe (Lord Crewe's +sister), about forty, pleasant, intelligent, and rather rich: +that is the end of Richard's long first act. Alfred +Tennyson, perhaps you heard, is gone to Italy with his wife: +their baby died or was dead-born; they found England wearisome: +Alfred has been taken up on the top of the wave, and a good deal +jumbled about since you were here. Item Thackeray; who is +coming over to lecture to you: a mad world, my Masters! Your +Letter to Mazzini was duly despatched; and we hear from him that +he will write to you, on the subject required, without delay. +Browning and his wife, home from Florence, are both in London at +present; mean to live in Paris henceforth for some time. They +had seen something both of Margaret and her d'Ossoli, and +appeared to have a true and lively interest in them; Browning +spoke a long while to me, with emphasis, on the subject: I think +it was I that had introduced poor Margaret to them. I said he +ought to send these reminiscences to America,--that was the night +before we left London, three weeks ago; his answer gave me the +impression there had been some hindrance somewhere. Accordingly, +when your Letter and Mazzini's reached me here, I wrote to +Browning urgently on the subject: but he informs me that they +_have_ sent all their reminiscences, at the request of Mr. Story; +so that it is already all well.--Dear Emerson, you see I am at +the bottom of my paper. I will write to you again before long; +we cannot let you lie fallow in that manner altogether. Have you +got proper _spectacles_ for your eyes? I have adopted that +beautiful symbol of old age, and feel myself very venerable: +take care of your eyes! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXLVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 14 April, 1852 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I have not grown so callous by my sulky habit, +but that I know where my friends are, and who can help me, in +time of need. And I have to crave your good offices today, and +in a matter relating once more to Margaret Fuller.... You were +so kind as to interest yourself, many months ago, to set Mazzini +and Browning on writing their Reminiscences for us. But we never +heard from either of them. Lately I have learned, by way of Sam +Longfellow, in Paris, brother of our poet Longfellow, that +Browning assured him that he did write and send a memoir to this +country,--to whom, I know not. It never arrived at the hands of +the Fullers, nor of Story, Channing, or me;--though the book was +delayed in the hope of such help. I hate that his paper should +be lost. + +The little French _Voyage,_ &c. of Bossu, I got safely, and +compared its pictures with my own, at the Mississippi, the +Illinois, and Chicago. It is curious and true enough, no doubt, +though its Indians are rather dim and vague, and "Messieurs +Sauvages" Good Indians we have in Alexander Henry's _Travels in +Canada,_ and in our modern Catlin, and the best Western America, +perhaps, in F.A. Michaux, _Voyage a l'ouest des monts +Alleghanis,_ and in Fremont. But it was California I believe you +asked about, and, after looking at Taylor, Parkman, and the rest, +I saw that the only course is to read them all, and every private +letter that gets into the newspapers. So there was nothing +to say. + +I rejoiced with the rest of mankind in the _Life of Sterling,_ +and now peace will be to his Manes, down in this lower sphere. +Yet I see well that I should have held to his opinion, in all +those conferences where you have so quietly assumed the palms. +It is said: here, that you work upon Frederick the Great?? +However that be, health, strength, love, joy, and victory to you. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXLVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 7 May, 1852 + +Dear Emerson,--I was delighted at the sight of your hand again. +My manifold sins against you, involuntary all of them I may well +say, are often enough present to my sad thoughts; and a kind of +remorse is mixed with the other sorrow,--as if I could have +_helped_ growing to be, by aid of time and destiny, the grim +Ishmaelite I am, and so shocking your serenity by my ferocities! +I admit you were like an angel to me, and absorbed in the +beautifulest manner all thunder-clouds into the depths of your +immeasurable a ether;--and it is indubitable I love you very +well, and have long done, and mean to do. And on the whole you +will have to rally yourself into some kind of Correspondence with +me again; I believe you will find that also to be a commanded +duty by and by! To me at any rate, I can say, it is a great +want, and adds perceptibly to the sternness of these years: deep +as is my dissent from your Gymnosophist view of Heaven and Earth, +I find an agreement that swallows up all conceivable dissents; +in the whole world I hardly get, to my spoken human word, any +other word of response which is authentically _human._ God help +us, this is growing a very lonely place, this distracted dog- +kennel of a world! And it is no joy to me to see it about to +have its throat cut for its immeasurable devilries; that is not +a pleasant process to be concerned in either more or less,-- +considering above all how many centuries, base and dismal all of +them, it is like to take! Nevertheless _Marchons,_--and swift +too, if we have any speed, for the sun is sinking.... Poor +Margaret, that is a strange tragedy that history of hers; and +has many traits of the Heroic in it, though it is wild as the +prophecy of a Sibyl. Such a predetermination to _eat_ this big +Universe as her oyster or her egg, and to be absolute empress of +all height and glory in it that her heart could conceive, I have +not before seen in any human soul. Her "mountain me" indeed:-- +but her courage too is high and clear, her chivalrous nobleness +indeed is great; her veracity, in its deepest sense, _a toute +epreuve._--Your Copy of the Book* came to me at last (to my joy): +I had already read it; there was considerable notice taken of it +here; and one half-volume of it (and I grieve to say only one, +written by a man called Emerson) was completely approved by me +and innumerable judges. The rest of the Book is not without +considerable geniality and merits; but one wanted a clear +concise Narrative beyond all other merits; and if you ask here +(except in that half-volume) about any fact, you are answered (so +to speak) not in words, but by a symbolic tune on the bagpipe, +symbolic burst of wind-music from the brass band;--which is not +the plan at all!--What can have become of Mazzini's Letter, which +he certainly did write and despatched to you, is not easily +conceivable. Still less in the case of Browning: for Browning +and his Wife did also write; I myself in the end of last July, +having heard him talk kindly and well of poor Margaret and her +Husband, took the liberty on your behalf of asking him to put +something down on paper; and he informed me, then and repeatedly +since, he had already done it,--at the request of Mrs. Story, I +think. His address at present is, "No. 138 Avenue des Champs +Elysees, a Paris," if your American travelers still thought of +inquiring.--Adieu, dear Emerson, till next week. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +-------- +* "The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli." +-------- + + + + +CXLIX. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, May [?], 1852 + +You make me happy with your loving thoughts and meanings towards +me. I have always thanked the good star which made us early +neighbors, in some sort, in time and space. And the beam is +twice warmed by your vigorous good-will, which has steadily kept +clear, kind eyes on me. + +-------- +* From an imperfect rough draft. +-------- + +It is good to be born in good air and outlook, and not less with +a civilization, that is, with one poet still living in the world. +O yes, and I feel all the solemnity and vital cheer of the +benefit.--If only the mountains of water and of land and the +steeper mountains of blighted and apathized moods would permit a +word to pass now and then. It is very fine for you to tax +yourself with all those incompatibilities. I like that Thor +should make comets and thunder, as well as Iduna apples, or +Heimdal his rainbow bridge, and your wrath and satire has all too +much realism in it, than that we can flatter ourselves by +disposing of you as partial and heated. Nor is it your fault +that you do a hero's work, nor do we love you less if we cannot +help you in it. Pity me, O strong man! I am of a puny +constitution half made up, and as I from childhood knew,--not a +poet but a lover of poetry, and poets, and merely serving as +writer, &c. in this empty America, before the arrival of the +poets. You must not misconstrue my silences, but thank me +for them all, as a true homage to your diligence which I love +to defend... + +She* had such reverence and love for Landor that I do not know +but at any moment in her natural life she would have sunk in the +sea, for an ode from him; and now this most propitious cake is +offered to her Manes. The loss of the notes of Browning and of +Mazzini, which you confirm, astonishes me. + +--------- +* Margaret Fuller. The break in continuity is in the rough draft. +--------- + + + + +CL. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 25 June, 1852 + +Dear Emerson...... You are a born _enthusiast,_ as quiet as you +are; and it will continue so, at intervals, to the end. I +admire your sly low-voiced sarcasm too;--in short, I love the +sternly-gentle close-buttoned man very well, as I have always +done, and intend to continue doing!--Pray observe therefore, and +lay it to heart as a practical fact, that you are bound to +persevere in writing to me from time to time; and will never get +it given up, how sulky soever you grow, while we both remain in +this world. Do not I very well understand all that you say about +"apathized moods," &c.? The gloom of approaching old age +(approaching, nay arriving with some of us) is very considerable +upon a man; and on the whole one contrives to take the very +ugliest view, now and then, of all beautifulest things; and to +shut one's lips with a kind of grim defiance, a kind of imperial +sorrow which is almost like felicity,--so completely and +composedly wretched, one is equal to the very gods! These too +are necessary, moods to a man. But the Earth withal is verdant, +sun-beshone; and the Son of Adam has his place on it, and his +tasks and recompenses in it, to the close;--as one remembers by +and by, too. On the whole, I am infinitely solitary; but not +more heavy laden than I have all along been, perhaps rather less +so; I could fancy even old age to be beautiful, and to have a +real divineness: for the rest, I say always, I cannot part with +you, however it go; and so, in brief, you must get into the way +of holding yourself obliged as formerly to a kind of _dialogue_ +with me; and speak, on paper since not otherwise, the oftenest +you can. Let that be a point settled. + +I am not _writing_ on Frederic the Great; nor at all practically +contemplating to do so. But, being in a reading mood after those +furious _Pamphlets_ (which have procured me showers of abuse from +all the extensive genus Stupid in this country, and not done me +any other mischief, but perhaps good), and not being capable of +reading except in a train and _about_ some object of interest to +me,--I took to reading, near a year ago, about Frederick, as I +had twice in my life done before; and have, in a loose way, +tumbled up an immense quantity of shot rubbish on that field, and +still continue. Not with much decisive approach to Frederick's +_self,_ I am still afraid! The man looks brilliant and noble to +me; but how _love_ him, or the sad wreck he lived and worked in? +I do not even yet _see_ him clearly; and to try making others +see him--?--Yet Voltaire and he _are_ the celestial element of +the poor Eighteenth Century; poor souls. I confess also to a +real love for Frederick's dumb followers: the Prussian +_Soldiery._--I often say to myself, "Were not _here_ the real +priests and virtuous martyrs of that loud-babbling rotten +generation!" And so it goes on; when to end, or in what to end, +God knows. + +Adieu, dear Emerson. A blockhead (by mistake) has been let in, +and has consumed all my time. Good be ever with you and yours. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 19 April, 1853 + + My Dear Friend,--As I find I never write a letter except at the +dunning of the Penny Post,--which is the pest of the century,--I +have thought lately of crossing to England to excuse to you my +negligence of your injunction, which so flattered me by its +affectionateness a year ago. I was to write once a month. My +own disobedience is wonderful, and explains to me all the sins of +omission of the whole world. The levity with which we can let +fall into disuse such a sacrament as the exchange of greeting at +short periods, is a kind of magnanimity, and should be an +astonishing argument of the "Immortality"; and I wonder how it +has escaped the notice of philosophers. But what had I, dear +wise man, to tell you? What, but that life was still tolerable; +still absurdly sweet; still promising, promising, to credulous +idleness;--but step of mine taken in a true direction, or clear +solution of any the least secret,--none whatever. I scribble +always a little,--much less than formerly,--and I did within a +year or eighteen months write a chapter on Fate, which--if we all +live long enough, that is, you, and I, and the chapter--I hope to +send you in fair print. Comfort yourself--as you will--you will +survive the reading, and will be a sure proof that the nut is not +cracked. For when we find out what Fate is, I suppose, the +Sphinx and we are done for; and Sphinx, Oedipus, and world +ought, by good rights, to roll down the steep into the sea. + +But I was going to say, my neglect of your request will show you +how little saliency is in my weeks and months. They are hardly +distinguished in memory other than as a running web out of a +loom, a bright stripe for day, a dark stripe for night, and, when +it goes faster, even these run together into endless gray... I +went lately to St. Louis and saw the Mississippi again. The +powers of the River, the insatiate craving for nations of men to +reap and cure its harvests, the conditions it imposes,--for it +yields to no engineering,--are interesting enough. The Prairie +exists to yield the greatest possible quantity of adipocere. For +corn makes pig, pig is the export of all the land, and you shall +see the instant dependence of aristocracy and civility on the fat +four legs. Workingmen, ability to do the work of the River, +abounded. Nothing higher was to be thought of. America is +incomplete. Room for us all, since it has not ended, nor given +sign of ending, in bard or hero. 'T is a wild democracy, the +riot of mediocrities, and none of your selfish Italies and +Englands, where an age sublimates into a genius, and the whole +population is made into Paddies to feed his porcelain veins, by +transfusion from their brick arteries. Our few fine persons are +apt to die. Horatio Greenough, a sculptor, whose tongue was far +cunninger in talk than his chisel to carve, and who inspired +great hopes, died two months ago at forty-seven years. Nature +has only so much vital force, and must dilute it, if it is to be +multiplied into millions. "The beautiful is never plentiful." +On the whole, I say to myself, that our conditions in America are +not easier or less expensive than the European. For the poor +scholar everywhere must be compromise or alternation, and, after +many remorses, the consoling himself that there has been +pecuniary honesty, and that things might have been worse. But +no; we must think much better things than these. Let Lazarus +believe that Heaven does not corrupt into maggots, and that +heroes do not succumb. + +Clough is here, and comes to spend a Sunday with me, now and +then. He begins to have pupils, and, if his courage holds out, +will have as many as he wants.... I have written hundreds of +pages about England and America, and may send them to you +in print. And now be good and write me once more, and I think +I will never cease to write again. And give my homage to +Jane Carlyle. + +Ever yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 13 May, 1853 + +Dear Emerson,--The sight of your handwriting was a real blessing +to me, after so long an abstinence. You shall not know all the +sad reflections I have made upon your silence within the last +year. I never doubted your fidelity of heart; your genial deep +and friendly recognition of my bits of merits, and my bits of +sufferings, difficulties and obstructions; your forgiveness of +my faults; or in fact that you ever would forget me, or cease to +think kindly of me: but it seemed as if practically _Old Age_ +had come upon the scene here too; and as if upon the whole one +must make up one's mind to know that all this likewise had fallen +silent, and could be possessed henceforth only on those new +terms. Alas, there goes much over, year after year, into the +regions of the Immortals; inexpressibly beautiful, but also +inexpressibly sad. I have not many voices to commune with in the +world. In fact I have properly no voice at all; and yours, I +have often said, was the _unique_ among my fellow-creatures, from +which came full response, and discourse of reason: the +_solitude_ one lives in, if one has any spiritual thought at all, +is very great in these epochs!--The truth is, moreover, I bought +spectacles to myself about two years ago (bad print in candle- +light having fairly become troublesome to me); much may lie in +that! "The buying of your first pair of spectacles," I said to +an old Scotch gentleman, "is an important epoch; like the buying +of your first razor."--"Yes," answered he, "but not quite so +joyful perhaps!"--Well, well, I have heard from you again; and +you promise to be again constant in writing. Shall I believe +you, this time? Do it, and shame the Devil! I really am +persuaded it will do yourself good; and to me I know right well, +and have always known, what it will do. The gaunt lonesomeness +of this Midnight Hour, in the ugly universal _snoring_ hum of the +overfilled deep-sunk Posterity of Adam, renders an articulate +speaker precious indeed! Watchman, what sayest thou, then? +Watchman, what of the night?-- + +Your glimpses of the huge unmanageable Mississippi, of the huge +ditto Model Republic, have here and there something of the _epic_ +in them,--_ganz nach meinem Sinne._ I see you do not dissent +from me in regard to that latter enormous Phenomenon, except on +the outer surface, and in the way of peaceably instead of +_un_peaceably accepting the same. Alas, all the world is a +"republic of the Mediocrities," and always was;--you may see what +_its_ "universal suffrage" is and has been, by looking into all +the ugly mud-ocean (with some old weathercocks atop) that now +_is:_ the world wholly (if we think of it) is the exact stamp of +men wholly, and of the _sincerest_ heart-tongue-and-hand +"suffrage" they could give about it, poor devils!--I was much +struck with Plato, last year, and his notions about Democracy: +mere Latter-Day Pamphlet _saxa et faces_ (read _faeces,_ if you +like) refined into empyrean radiance and lightning of the gods!-- +I, for my own part, perceive the use of all this too, the +inevitability of all this; but perceive it (at the present +height it has attained) to be disastrous withal, to be horrible +and even damnable. That Judas Iscariot should come and slap +Jesus Christ on the shoulder in a familiar manner; that all +heavenliest nobleness should be flung out into the muddy streets +there to jostle elbows with all thickest-skinned denizens of +chaos, and get itself at every turn trampled into the gutters and +annihilated:--alas, the _reverse_ of all this was, is, and ever +will be, the strenuous effort and most solemn heart-purpose of +every good citizen in every country of the world,--and will +_reappear_ conspicuously as such (in New England and in Old, +first of all, as I calculate), when once this malodorous +melancholy "Uncle Tommery" is got all well put by! Which will +take some time yet, I think.--And so we will leave it. + +I went to Germany last autumn; not _seeking_ anything very +definite; rather merely flying from certain troops of +carpenters, painters, bricklayers, &c., &c., who had made a +lodgment in this poor house; and have not even yet got their +incalculable riot quite concluded. Sorrow on them,--and no +return to these poor premises of mine till I have quite left!--In +Germany I found but little; and suffered, from six weeks of +sleeplessness in German beds, &c., &c., a great deal. Indeed I +seem to myself never yet to have quite recovered. The Rhine +which I honestly ascended from Rotterdam to Frankfort was, as I +now find, my chief Conquest the beautifulest river in the Earth, +I do believe; and my first idea of a World-river. It is many +fathoms deep, broader twice over than the Thames here at high +water; and rolls along, mirror-smooth (except that, in looking +close, you will find ten thousand little eddies in it), +voiceless, swift, with trim banks, through the heart of Europe, +and of the Middle Ages wedded to the Present Age: such an image +of calm _power_ (to say nothing of its other properties) I find I +had never seen before. The old Cities too are a little beautiful +to me, in spite of my state of nerves; honest, kindly people +too, but sadly short of our and your _despatch-of-business_ +talents,--a really painful defect in the long run. I was on two +of Fritz's Battle-fields, moreover: Lobositz in Bohemia, and +Kunersdorf by Frankfurt on the Oder; but did not, especially in +the latter case, make much of that. Schiller's death-chamber, +Goethe's sad Court-environment; above all, Luther's little room +in the _Wartburg_ (I believe I actually had tears in my eyes +there, and kissed the old oak-table, being in a very flurried +state of nerves), my belief was that under the Canopy there was +not at present so _holy_ a spot as that same. Of human souls I +found none specially beautiful to me at all, at all,--such my sad +fate! Of learned professors, I saw little, and that little was +more than enough. Tieck at Berlin, an old man, lame on a Sofa, I +did love, and do; he is an exception, could I have seen much of +him. But on the whole _Universal Puseyism_ seemed to me the +humor of German, especially of Berlin thinkers;--and I had some +quite portentous specimens of that kind,--unconscious specimens +of four hundred quack power! Truly and really the Prussian +Soldiers, with their intelligent _silence,_ with the touches of +effective Spartanism I saw or fancied in them, were the class of +people that pleased me best. But see, my sheet is out! I am +still reading, reading, most nightmare Books about Fritz; but as +to writing,--_Ach Gott!_ Never, never.--Clough is coming home, I +hope.--Write soon, if you be not enchanted! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLIIa. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 10 August, 1853 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Your kindest letter, whose date I dare not +count back to,--perhaps it was May,--I have just read again, to +be deeply touched by its noble tragic tone of goodness to me, not +without new wonder at my perversity, and terror at what both may +be a-forging to strike me. My slowness to write is a distemper +that reaches all my correspondence, and not that with you only, +though the circumstance is not worth stating, because, if I +ceased to write to all the rest, there would yet be good reason +for writing to you. I believe the reason of this recusancy is +the fear of disgusting my friends, as with a book open always at +the same page. For I have some experiences, that my interest in +thoughts--and to an end, perhaps, only of new thoughts and +thinking--outlasts that of all my reasonable neighbors, and +offends, no doubt, by unhealthy pertinacity. But though rebuked +by a daily reduction to an absurd solitude, and by a score of +disappointments with intellectual people, and in the face of a +special hell provided for me in the Swedenborg Universe, I am yet +confirmed in my madness by the scope and satisfaction I find in a +conversation once or twice in five years, if so often; and so we +find or pick what we call our proper path, though it be only from +stone to stone, or from island to island, in a very rude, +stilted, and violent fashion. With such solitariness and +frigidities, you may judge I was glad to see Clough here, with +whom I had established some kind of robust working-friendship, +and who had some great permanent values for me. Had he not taken +me by surprise and fled in a night, I should have done what I +could to block his way. I am too sure he will not return. The +first months comprise all the shocks of disappointment that are +likely to disgust a new-comer. The sphere of opportunity opens +slowly, but to a man of his abilities and culture--rare enough +here--with the sureness of chemistry. The Giraffe entering Paris +wore the label, "Eh bien, messieurs, il n'y a qu'une bete de +plus!" And Oxonians are cheap in London; but here, the eternal +economy of sending things where they are wanted makes a +commanding claim. Do not suffer him to relapse into London. He +had made himself already cordially welcome to many good people, +and would have soon made his own place. He had just established +his valise at my house, and was to come--the gay deceiver--once a +fortnight for his Sunday; and his individualities and his +nationalities are alike valuable to me. I beseech you not to +commend his unheroic retreat. + +I have lately made, one or two drafts on your goodness,--which I +hate to do, both because you meet them so generously, and because +you never give me an opportunity of revenge,--and mainly in the +case of Miss Bacon, who has a private history that entitles her +to high respect, and who could be helped only by facilitating her +Shakespeare studies, in which she has the faith and ardor of a +discoverer. Bancroft was to have given her letters to Hallam, +but gave one to Sir H. Ellis. Everett, I believe, gave her one +to Mr. Grote; and when I told her what I remembered hearing of +Spedding, she was eager to see him; which access I knew not how +to secure, except through you. She wrote me that she prospers in +all things, and had just received at once a summons to meet +Spedding at your house. But do not fancy that I send any one to +you heedlessly; for I value your time at its rate to nations, +and refuse many more letters than I give. I shall not send you +any more people without good reason. + +Your visit to Germany will stand you in stead, when the +annoyances of the journey are forgotten, and, in spite of your +disclaimers, I am preparing to read your history of Frederic. +You are an inveterate European, and rightfully stand for your +polity and antiquities and culture: and I have long since +forborne to importune you with America, as if it were a humorous +repetition of Johnson's visit to Scotland. And yet since +Thackeray's adventure, I have often thought how you would bear +the pains and penalties; and have painted out your march +triumphal. I was at New York, lately, for a few days, and fell +into some traces of Thackeray, who has made a good mark in this +country by a certain manly blurting out of his opinion in various +companies, where so much honesty was rare and useful. I am sorry +never once to have been in the same town with him whilst he was +here. I hope to see him, if he comes again. New York would +interest you, as I am told it did him; you both less and more. +The "society" there is at least self-pleased, and its own; it +has a contempt of Boston, and a very modest opinion of London. +There is already all the play and fury that belong to great +wealth. A new fortune drops into the city every day; no end is +to palaces, none to diamonds, none to dinners and suppers. All +Spanish America discovers that only in the U. States, of all the +continent, is safe investment; and money gravitates therefore to +New York. The Southern naphtha, too, comes in as an ingredient, +and lubricates manners and tastes to that degree, that Boston is +hated for stiffness, and excellence in luxury is rapidly +attained. Of course, dining, dancing, equipaging, etc. are the +exclusive beatitudes,--and Thackeray will not cure us of this +distemper. Have you a physician that can? Are you a physician, +and will you come? If you will come, cities will go out to +meet you. + +And now I see I have so much to say to you that I ought to write +once a month, and I must begin at this point again incontinently. + + +Ever yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 9 September, 1853 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter came ten days ago; very kind, and +however late, surely right welcome! You ought to stir yourself +up a little, and actually begin to speak to me again. If we are +getting old, that is no reason why we should fall silent, and +entirely abstruse to one another. Alas, I do not find as I grow +older that the number of articulate-speaking human souls +increases around me, in proportion to the inarticulate and +palavering species! I am often abundantly solitary in heart; +and regret the old days when we used to speak oftener together. + +I have not quitted Town this year at all; have resisted calls to +Scotland both of a gay and a sad description (for the Ashburtons +are gone to John of Groat's House, or the Scottish _Thule,_ to +rusticate and hunt; and, alas, in poor old Annandale a tragedy +seems preparing for me, and the thing I have dreaded all my days +is perhaps now drawing nigh, ah me!)--I felt so utterly broken +and disgusted with the jangle of last year's locomotion, I judged +it would be better to sit obstinately still, and let my thoughts +_settle_ (into sediment and into clearness, as it might be); and +so, in spite of great and peculiar noises moreover, here I am and +remain. London is not a bad place at all in these months,--with +its long clean streets, green parks, and nobody in them, or +nobody one has ever seen before. Out of La Trappe, which does +not suit a Protestant man, there is perhaps no place where one +can be so perfectly alone. I might study even but, as I said, +there are noises going on; a _last_ desperate spasmodic effort +of building,--a new top-story to the house, out of which is to be +made one "spacious room" (so they call it, though it is under +twenty feet square) where there shall be air _ad libitum,_ light +from the sky, and no _sound,_ not even that of the Cremorne +Cannons, shall find access to me any more! Such is the prophecy; +may the gods grant it! We shall see now in about a month;--then +adieu to mortar-tubs to all Eternity:--I endure the thing, +meanwhile, as well as I can; might run to a certain rural +retreat near by, if I liked at any time; but do not yet: the +worst uproar here is but a trifle to that of German inns, and +horrible squeaking, choking railway trains; and one does not go +to seek this, _this_ is here of its own will, and for a purpose! +Seriously, I had for twelve years had such a sound-proof +inaccessible apartment schemed out in my head; and last year, +under a poor, helpless builder, had finally given it up: but +Chelsea, as London generally, swelling out as if it were mad, +grows every year noisier; a _good_ builder turned up, and with a +last paroxysm of enthusiasm I set him to. My notion is, he will +succeed; in which case, it will be a great possession to me for +the rest of my life. Alas, this is not the kind of _silence_ I +could have coveted, and could once get,--with green fields and +clear skies to accompany it! But one must take such as can be +had,--and thank the gods. Even so, my friend. In the course of +about a year of that garret sanctuary, I hope to have swept away +much litter from my existence: in fact I am already, by dint of +mere obstinate quiescence in such circumstances as there are, +intrinsically growing fairly sounder in nerves. What a business +a poor human being has with those nerves of his, with that crazy +clay tabernacle of his! Enough, enough; there will be all +Eternity to rest in, as Arnauld said: "Why in such a fuss, +little sir?" + +You "apologize" for sending people to me: O you of little faith! +Never dream of such a thing nay, whom _did_ you send? The +Cincinnati Lecturer* I had provided for with Owen; they would +have been glad to hear him, on the Cedar forests, on the pigs +making rattlesnakes into bacon, and the general adipocere +question, under any form, at the Albemarle Street rooms;--and he +never came to hand. As for Miss Bacon, we find her, with her +modest shy dignity, with her solid character and strange +enterprise, a real acquisition; and hope we shall now see more +of her, now that she has come nearer to us to lodge. I have not +in my life seen anything so tragically _quixotic_ as her +Shakespeare enterprise: alas, alas, there can be nothing but +sorrow, toil, and utter disappointment in it for her! I do +cheerfully what I can;--which is far more than she _asks_ of me +(for I have not seen a prouder silent soul);--but there is not +the least possibility of truth in the notion she has taken up: +and the hope of ever proving it, or finding the least document +that countenances it, is equal to that of vanquishing the +windmills by stroke of lance. I am often truly sorry about the +poor lady: but she troubles nobody with her difficulties, with +her theories; she must try the matter to the end, and charitable +souls must further her so far. + +--------- +* Mr. O.M. Mitchell, the astronomer. +--------- + +Clough is settled in his Office; gets familiarized to it rapidly +(he says), and seems to be doing well. I see little of him +hitherto; I did not, and will not, try to influence him in his +choice of countries; but I think he is now likely to continue +here, and here too he may do us some good. Of America, at least +of New England, I can perceive he has brought away an altogether +kindly, almost filial impression,--especially of a certain man +who lives in that section of the Earth. More power to his +elbow!--Thackeray has very rarely come athwart me since his +return: he is a big fellow, soul and body; of many gifts and +qualities (particularly in the Hogarth line, with a dash of +Sterne superadded), of enormous _appetite_ withal, and very +uncertain and chaotic in all points except his _outer breeding,_ +which is fixed enough, and _perfect_ according to the modern +English style. I rather dread explosions in his history. A +_big,_ fierce, weeping, hungry man; not a strong one. _Ay de +mi!_ But I must end, I must end. Your Letter awakened in me, +while reading it, one mad notion. I said to myself: Well, if I +live to finish this Frederic impossibility, or even to fling it +fairly into the fire, why should not I go, in my old days, and +see Concord, Yankeeland, and that man again, after all!--Adieu, +dear friend; all good be with you and yours always. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 11 March, 1854 + +My Dear Carlyle,--The sight of Mr. Samuel Laurence, the day +before yesterday, in New York, and of your head among his +sketches, set me on thinking which had some pain where should be +only cheer. For Mr. Laurence I hailed his arrival, on every +account. I wish to see a good man whom you prize; and I like to +have good Englishmen come to America, which, of all countries, +after their own, has the best claim to them. He promises to come +and see me, and has begun most propitiously in New York. For +you,--I have too much constitutional regard and ---, not to feel +remorse for my short-comings and slow-comings, and I remember the +maxim which the French stole from our Indians,--and it was worth +stealing,--"Let not the grass grow on the path of friendship." +Ah! my brave giant, you can never understand the silence and +forbearances of such as are not giants. To those to whom we owe +affection, let us be dumb until we are strong, though we should +never be strong. I hate mumped and measled lovers. I hate cramp +in all men,--most in myself. + +And yet I should have been pushed to write without Samuel +Laurence; for I lately looked into _Jesuitism,_ a Latter-Day +Pamphlet, and found why you like those papers so well. I think +you have cleared your skirts; it is a pretty good minority of +one, enunciating with brilliant malice what shall be the +universal opinion of the next edition of mankind. And the sanity +was so manifest, that I felt that the over-gods had cleared their +skirts also to this generation, in not leaving themselves without +witness, though without this single voice perhaps I should not +acquit them. Also I pardon the world that reads the book as +though it read it not, when I see your inveterated humors. It +required courage and required conditions that feuilletonists are +not the persons to name or qualify, this writing Rabelais in +1850. And to do this alone.--You must even pitch your tune to +suit yourself. We must let Arctic Navigators and deepsea divers +wear what astonishing coats, and eat what meats--wheat or whale-- +they like, without criticism. + +I read further, sidewise and backwards, in these pamphlets, +without exhausting them. I have not ceased to think of the great +warm heart that sends them forth, and which I, with others, +sometimes tag with satire, and with not being warm enough for +this poor world;--I too,--though I know its meltings to-me-ward. +Then I learned that the newspapers had announced the death of +your mother (which I heard of casually on the Rock River, +Illinois), and that you and your brother John had been with her +in Scotland. I remembered what you had once and again said of +her to me, and your apprehensions of the event which has come. I +can well believe you were grieved. The best son is not enough a +son. My mother died in my house in November, who had lived with +me all my life, and kept her heart and mind clear, and her own, +until the end. It is very necessary that we should have +mothers,--we that read and write,--to keep us from becoming +paper. I had found that age did not make that she should die +without causing me pain. In my journeying lately, when I think +of home the heart is taken out. + +Miss Bacon wrote me in joyful fulness of the cordial kindness and +aid she had found at your hands, and at your wife's; and I have +never thanked you, and much less acknowledged her copious +letter,--copious with desired details. Clough, too, wrote about +you, and I have not written to him since his return to England. +You will see how total is my ossification. Meantime I have +nothing to tell you that can explain this mild palsy. I worked +for a time on my English Notes with a view of printing, but was +forced to leave them to go read some lectures in Philadelphia and +some Western towns. I went out Northwest to great countries +which I had not visited before; rode one day, fault of broken +railroads, in a sleigh, sixty-five miles through the snow, by +Lake Michigan, (seeing how prairies and oak-openings look in +winter,) to reach Milwaukee; "the world there was done up in +large lots," as a settler told me. The farmer, as he is now a +colonist and has drawn from his local necessities great doses of +energy, is interesting, and makes the heroic age for Wisconsin. +He lives on venison and quails. I was made much of, as the only +man of the pen within five hundred miles, and by rarity worth +more than venison and quails. + +Greeley of the _New York Tribune_ is the right spiritual father +of all this region; he prints and disperses one hundred and ten +thousand newspapers in one day,--multitudes of them in these very +parts. He had preceded me, by a few days, and people had flocked +together, coming thirty and forty miles to hear him speak; as +was right, for he does all their thinking and theory for them, +for two dollars a year. Other than Colonists, I saw no man. +"There are no singing birds in the prairie," I truly heard. All +the life of the land and water had distilled no thought. Younger +and better, I had no doubt been tormented to read and speak their +sense for them. Now I only gazed at them and their boundless land. + +One good word closed your letter in September, which ought to +have had an instant reply, namely, that you might come westward +when Frederic was disposed of. Speed Frederic, then, for all +reasons and for this! America is growing furiously, town and +state; new Kansas, new Nebraska looming up in these days, +vicious politicians seething a wretched destiny for them already +at Washington. The politicians shall be sodden, the States +escape, please God! The fight of slave and freeman drawing +nearer, the question is sharply, whether slavery or whether +freedom shall be abolished. Come and see. Wealth, which is +always interesting, for from wealth power refuses to be divorced, +is on a new scale. Californian quartz mountains dumped down in +New York to be repiled architecturally along shore from Canada to +Cuba, and thence west to California again. John Bull interests +you at home, and is all your subject. Come and see the +Jonathanization of John. What, you scorn all this? Well, then, +come and see a few good people, impossible to be seen on any +other shore, who heartily and always greet you. There is a very +serious welcome for you here. And I too shall wake from sleep. +My wife entreats that an invitation shall go from her to you. + +Faithfully yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 8 April, 1854 + +Dear Emerson,--It was a morning not like any other which lay +round it, a morning to be marked white, that one, about a week +ago, when your Letter came to me; a word from you yet again, +after so long a silence! On the whole, I perceive you will not +utterly give up answering me, but will rouse yourself now and +then to a word of human brotherhood on my behalf, so long as we +both continue in this Planet. And I declare, the Heavens will +reward you; and as to me, I will be thankful for what I get, and +submissive to delays and to all things: all things are good +compared with flat want in that respect. It remains true, and +will remain, what I have often told you, that properly there is +no voice in this world which is completely human to me, which +fully understands all I say and with clear sympathy and sense +answers to me, but your voice only. That is a curious fact, and +not quite a joyful one to me. The solitude, the silence of my +poor soul, in the centre of this roaring whirlpool called +Universe, is great, always, and sometimes strange and almost +awful. I have two million talking bipeds without feathers, close +at my elbow, too; and of these it is often hard for me to say +whether the so-called "wise" or the almost professedly foolish +are the more inexpressibly unproductive to me. "Silence, +Silence!" I often say to myself: "Be silent, thou poor fool; +and prepare for that Divine Silence which is now not far!"--On +the whole, write to me whenever you can; and be not weary of +well-doing. + +I have had sad things to do and see since I wrote to you: the +loss of my dear and good old Mother, which could not be spared me +forever, has come more like a kind of total bankruptcy upon me +than might have been expected, considering her age and mine. Oh +those last two days, that last Christmas Sunday! She was a true, +pious, brave, and noble Mother to me; and it is now all over; +and the Past has all become pale and sad and sacred;--and the +all-devouring potency of Death, what we call Death, has never +looked so strange, cruel and unspeakable to me. Nay not _cruel_ +altogether, let me say: huge, profound, _unspeakable,_ that is +the word.--You too have lost your good old Mother, who stayed +with you like mine, clear to the last: alas, alas, it is the +oldest Law of Nature; and it comes on every one of us with a +strange originality, as if it had never happened before.-- +Forward, however; and no more lamenting; no more than cannot be +helped. "Paradise is under the shadow of our swords," said the +Emir: "Forward!"-- + +I make no way in my Prussian History; I bore and dig toilsomely +through the unutterablest mass of dead rubbish, which is not even +English, which is German and inhuman; and hardly from ten tons +of learned inanity is there to be riddled one old rusty nail. +For I have been back as far as Pytheas who, first of speaking +creatures, beheld the Teutonic Countries; and have questioned +all manner of extinct German shadows,--who answer nothing but +mumblings. And on the whole Fritz himself is not sufficiently +divine to me, far from it; and I am getting old, and heavy of +heart;--and in short, it oftenest seems to me I shall never write +any word about that matter; and have again fairly got into the +element of the IMPOSSIBLE. Very well: could I help it? I can +at least be honestly silent; and "bear my indigence with +dignity," as you once said. The insuperable difficulty of +_Frederic_ is, that he, the genuine little ray of Veritable and +Eternal that was in him, lay imbedded in the putrid Eighteenth +Century, such an Ocean of sordid nothingness, shams, and +scandalous hypocrisies, as never weltered in the world before; +and that in everything I can find yet written or recorded of him, +he still, to all intents and purposes, most tragically _lies_ +THERE;--and ought not to lie there, if any use is ever to be had +of him, or at least of _writing_ about him; for as to him, he +with his work is safe enough to us, far elsewhere.--Pity me, pity +me; I know not on what hand to turn; and have such a Chaos +filling all my Earth and Heaven as was seldom seen in British or +Foreign Literature! Add to which, the Sacred Entity, Literature +itself, is not growing more venerable to me, but less and ever +less: good Heavens, I feel often as if there were no madder set +of bladders tumbling on the billows of the general Bedlam at this +moment than even the Literary ones,--dear at twopence a gross, I +should say, unless one could _annihilate_ them by purchase on +those easy terms! But do not tell this in Gath; let it be a sad +family secret. + +I smile, with a kind of grave joy, over your American +speculations, and wild dashing portraitures of things as they are +with you; and recognize well, under your light caricature, the +outlines of a right true picture, which has often made me sad and +grim in late years. Yes, I consider that the "Battle of Freedom +and Slavery" is very far from ended; and that the fate of poor +"Freedom" in the quarrel is very questionable indeed! Alas, +there is but one _Slavery,_ as I wrote somewhere; and that, I +think, is mounting towards a height, which may bring strokes to +bear upon it again! Meanwhile, patience; for us there is +nothing else appointed.--Tell me, however, what has become of +your Book on England? We shall really be obliged to you for +that. A piece of it went through all the Newspapers, some years +ago; which was really unique for its quaint kindly insight, +humor, and other qualities; like an etching by Hollar or Durer, +amid the continents of vile smearing which are called "pictures" at +present. Come on, Come on; give us the Book, and don't loiter!-- + +Miss Bacon has fled away to _St. Alban's_ (the _Great_ Bacon's +place) five or six months ago; and is there working out her +Shakespeare Problem, from the depths of her own mind, disdainful +apparently, or desperate and careless, of all _evidence_ from +Museums or Archives; I have not had an answer from her since +before Christmas, and have now lost her address. Poor Lady: I +sometimes silently wish she were safe home again; for truly +there can no madder enterprise than her present one be well +figured. Adieu, my Friend; I must stop short here. Write soon, +if you have any charity. Good be with you ever. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLVI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 17 April, 1855 + +My Dear Friend,--On this delicious spring day, I will obey the +beautiful voices of the winds, long disobeyed, and address you; +nor cloud the hour by looking at the letters in my drawer to know +if a twelvemonth has been allowed to elapse since this tardy +writing was due. Mr. Everett sent me one day a letter he had +received from you, containing a kind message to me, which gave me +pleasure and pain. I returned the letter with thanks, and with +promises I would sin no more. Instantly, I was whisked, by "the +stormy wing of Fate," out of my chain, and whirled, like a dry +leaf, through the State of New York. + +Now at home again, I read English Newspapers, with all the world, +and claim an imaginary privilege over my compatriots, that I +revolve therein my friend's large part. Ward said to me +yesterday, that Carlyle's star was daily rising. For C. had said +years ago, when all men thought him mad, that which the rest of +mortals, including the Times Newspaper, have at last got near +enough to see with eyes, and therefore to believe. And one day, +in Philadelphia, you should have heard the wise young Philip +Randolph defend you against objections of mine. But when I have +such testimony, I say to myself, the high-seeing austerely +exigent friend whom I elected, and who elected me, twenty years +and more ago, finds me heavy and silent, when all the world +elects and loves him. Yet I have not changed. I have the same +pride in his genius, the same sympathy with the Genius that +governs his, the old love with the old limitations, though love +and limitation be all untold. And I see well what a piece of +Providence he is, how material he is to the times, which must +always have a solo Soprano to balance the roar of the Orchestra. +The solo sings the theme; the orchestra roars antagonistically +but follows.--And have I not put him into my Chapter of "English +Spiritual Tendencies," with all thankfulness to the Eternal +Creator,--though the chapter lie unborn in a trunk? + +'T is fine for us to excuse ourselves, and patch with promises. +We shall do as before, and science is a fatalist. I follow, I +find, the fortunes of my Country, in my privatest ways. An +American is pioneer and man of all work, and reads up his +newspaper on Saturday night, as farmers and foresters do. We +admire the [Greek], and mean to give our boys the grand habit; +but we only sketch what they may do. No leisure except for the +strong, the nimble have none.--I ought to tell you what I do, or +I ought to have to tell you what I have done. But what can I? +the same concession to the levity of the times, the noise of +America comes again. I have even run on wrong topics for my +parsimonious Muse, and waste my time from my true studies. +England I see as a roaring volcano of Fate, which threatens to +roast or smother the poor literary Plinys that come too near for +mere purpose of reporting. + +I have even fancied you did me a harm by the valued gift of +Antony Wood;--which, and the like of which, I take a lotophagous +pleasure in eating. Yet this is measuring after appearance, +measuring on hours and days; the true measure is quite other, +for life takes its color and quality not from the days, but the +dawns. The lucid intervals are like drowning men's moments, +equivalent to the foregoing years. Besides, Nature uses us. We +live but little for ourselves, a good deal for our children, and +strangers. Each man is one more lump of clay to hold the world +together. It is in the power of the Spirit meantime to make him +rich reprisals,--which he confides will somewhere be done.--Ah, +my friend, you have better things to send me word of, than +these musings of indolence. Is Frederic recreated? Is Frederic +the Great? + +Forget my short-comings and write to me. Miss Bacon sends me +word, again and again, of your goodness. Against hope and sight +she must be making a remarkable book. I have a letter from her, +a few days ago, written in perfect assurance of success! Kindest +remembrances to your wife and to your brother. + +Yours faithfully, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 May, 1855 + +Dear Emerson,--Last Sunday, Clough was here; and we were +speaking about you, (much to your discredit, you need not doubt,) +and how stingy in the way of Letters you were grown; when, next +morning, your Letter itself made its appearance. Thanks, thanks. +You know not in the least, I perceive, nor can be made to +understand at all, how indispensable your Letters are to me. How +you are, and have for a long time been, the one of all the sons +of Adam who, I felt, completely understood what I was saying; +and answered with a truly _human_ voice,--inexpressibly +consolatory to a poor man, in his lonesome pilgrimage, towards +the evening of the day! So many voices are not human; but more +or less bovine, porcine, canine; and one's soul dies away in +sorrow in the sound of them, and is reduced to a dialogue with +the "Silences," which is of a very abstruse nature!--Well, +whether you write to me or not, I reserve to myself the privilege +of writing to you, so long as we both continue in this world! As +the beneficent Presences vanish from me, one after the other, +those that remain are the more precious, and I will not part with +them, not with the chief of them, beyond all. + +This last year has been a grimmer lonelier one with me than any I +can recollect for a long time. I did not go to the Country at +all in summer or winter; refused even my Christmas at The Grange +with the Ashburtons,--it was too sad an anniversary for me;--I +have sat here in my garret, wriggling and wrestling on the worst +terms with a Task that I cannot do, that generally seems to me +not worth doing, and yet _must_ be _done._ These are truly the +terms. I never had such a business in my life before. Frederick +himself is a pretty little man to me, veracious, courageous, +invincible in his small sphere; but he does not rise into the +empyrean regions, or kindle my heart round him at all; and his +history, upon which there are wagon-loads of dull bad books, is +the most dislocated, unmanageably incoherent, altogether dusty, +barren and beggarly production of the modern Muses as given +hitherto. No man of _genius_ ever saw him with eyes, except +twice Mirabeau, for half an hour each time. And the wretched +Books have no _indexes,_ no precision of detail; and I am far +away from Berlin and the seat of information;--and, in brief, +shall be beaten miserably with this unwise enterprise in my old +days; _and_ (in fine) will consent to be so, and get through it +if I can before I die. This of obstinacy is the one quality I +still show; all my other qualities (hope, among them) often seem +to have pretty much taken leave of me; but it is necessary to +hold by this last. Pray for me; I will complain no more at +present. General Washington gained the freedom of America-- +chiefly by this respectable quality I talk of; nor can a history +of Frederick be written, in Chelsea in the year 1855, except as +_against_ hope, and by planting yourself upon it in an extremely +dogged manner. + +We are all wool-gathering here, with wide eyes and astonished +minds, at a singular rate, since you heard last from me! +"Balaklava," I can perceive, is likely to be a substantive in the +English language henceforth: it in truth expresses compendiously +what an earnest mind will experience everywhere in English life; +if his soul rise at all above cotton and scrip, a man has to +pronounce it all a _Balaklava_ these many years. A Balaklava now +_yielding,_ under the pressure of rains and unexpected transit of +heavy wagons; champing itself down into mere mud-gulfs,--towards +the bottomless Pool, if some flooring be not found. To me it is +not intrinsically a new phenomenon, only an extremely hideous +one. _Altum Silentium,_ what else can I reply to it at present? +The Turk War, undertaken under pressure of the mere mobility, +seemed to me an enterprise worthy of Bedlam from the first; and +this method of carrying it on, _without_ any general, or with a +mere sash and cocked-hat for one, is of the same block of stuff. +_Ach Gott!_ Is not Anarchy, and parliamentary eloquence instead +of work, continued for half a century everywhere, a beautiful +piece of business? We are in alliance with Louis Napoleon (a +gentleman who has shown only _housebreaker_ qualities hitherto, +and is required now to show heroic ones, _or_ go to the Devil); +and under Marechal Saint-Arnaud (who was once a dancing-master in +this city, and continued a _thief_ in all cities), a Commander of +the Playactor-Pirate description, resembling a _General_ as +Alexander Dumas does Dante Alighieri,--we have got into a very +strange problem indeed!--But there is something almost grand in +the stubborn thickside patience and persistence of this English +People; and I do not question but they will work themselves +through in one fashion or another; nay probably, get a great +deal of benefit out of this astonishing slap on the nose to their +self-complacency before all the world. They have not _done_ yet, +I calculate, by any manner of means: they are, however, +admonished in an ignominious and convincing manner, amid the +laughter of nations, that they are altogether on the wrong road +this great while (two hundred years, as I have been calculating +often),--and I shudder to think of the plunging and struggle they +will have to get into the approximately right one again. Pray +for them also, poor stupid overfed heavy-laden souls!--Before my +paper quite end, I must in my own name, and that of a select +company of others, inquire rigorously of R.W.E. why he does not +_give_ us that little Book on England he has promised so long? I +am very serious in saying, I myself want much to see it;--and +that I can see no reason why we all should not, without delay. +Bring it out, I say, and print it, _tale quale._ You will never +get it in the least like what _you_ wish it, clearly no! But I +venture to warrant, it is good enough,--far too good for the +readers that are to get it. Such a pack of blockheads, and +disloyal and bewildered unfortunates who know not their right +hand from their left, as fill me with astonishment, and are more +and more forfeiting all respect from me. Publish the Book, I +say; let us have it and so have done! Adieu, my dear friend, +for this time. I had a thousand things more to write, but have +wasted my sheet, and must end. I will take another before long, +whatever you do. In my lonely thoughts you are never long +absent: _Valete_ all of you at Concord! + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 6 May, 1856 + +Dear Carlyle,--There is no escape from the forces of time and +life, and we do not write letters to the gods or to our friends, +but only to attorneys, landlords, and tenants. But the planes +and platforms on which all stand remain the same, and we are ever +expecting the descent of the heavens, which is to put us into +familiarity with the first named. When I ceased to write to you +for a long time, I said to myself,--If anything really good +should happen here,--any stroke of good sense or virtue in our +politics, or of great sense in a book,--I will send it on the +instant to the formidable man; but I will not repeat to him +every month, that there are no news. Thank me for my resolution, +and for keeping it through the long night.--One book, last +summer, came out in New York, a nondescript monster which yet had +terrible eyes and buffalo strength, and was indisputably +American,--which I thought to send you; but the book throve so +badly with the few to whom I showed it, and wanted good morals so +much, that I never did. Yet I believe now again, I shall. It is +called _Leaves of Grass,_--was written and printed by a +journeyman printer in Brooklyn, New York, named Walter Whitman; +and after you have looked into it, if you think, as you may, that +it is only an auctioneer's inventory of a warehouse, you can +light your pipe with it. + +By tomorrow's steamer goes Mrs. --- to Liverpool, and to +Switzerland and Germany, by the advice of physicians, and I +cannot let her go without praying you to drop your pen, and shut +up German history for an hour, and extend your walk to her +chambers, wherever they may be. _There's_ a piece of +republicanism for you to see and hear! That person was, ten or +fifteen years ago, the loveliest of women, and her speech and +manners may still give you some report of the same. She has +always lived with good people, and in her position is a centre of +what is called good society, wherein her large heart makes a +certain glory and refinement. She is one of nature's ladies, and +when I hear her tell I know not what stories of her friends, or +her children, or her pensioners, I find a pathetic eloquence +which I know not where to match. But I suppose you shall never +hear it. Every American is a little displaced in London, and, no +doubt, her company has grown to her. Her husband is a banker +connected in business with your ---, and is a man of elegant +genius and tastes, and his house is a resort for fine people. +Thorwaldsen distinguished Mrs. --- in Rome, formerly, by his +attentions. Powers the sculptor made an admirable bust of her; +Clough and Thackeray will tell you of her. Jenny Lind, like the +rest, was captivated by her, and was married at her house. Is +not Henry James in London? he knows her well. If Tennyson comes +to London, whilst she is there, he should see her for his "Lays +of Good Women." Now please to read these things to the wise and +kind ears of Jane Carlyle, and ask her if I have done wrong in +giving my friend a letter to her? I could not ask more than that +each of those ladies might appear to the other what each has +appeared to me. + +I saw Thackeray, in the winter, and he said he would come and see +me here, in April or May; but he is still, I believe, in the +South and West. Do not believe me for my reticency less hungry +for letters. I grieve at the want and loss, and am about writing +again, that I may hear from you. + +Ever affectionately yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 20 July, 1856 + +Dear Emerson;--Welcome was your Letter to me, after the long +interval; as welcome as any human Letter could now well be. +These many months and years I have been sunk in what disastrous +vortexes of foreign wreck you know, till I am fallen sick and +almost broken-hearted, and my life (if it were not this one +interest, of doing a problem which I see to be impossible, and of +smallish value if found doable!) is burdensome and without +meaning to me. It is so rarely I hear the voice of a magnanimous +Brother Man addressing any word to me: ninety-nine hundredths of +the Letters I get are impertinent clutchings of me by the button, +concerning which the one business is, How to get handsomely loose +again; What to say that shall soonest _end_ the intrusion,--if +saying Nothing will not be the best way. Which last I often in +my sorrow have recourse to, at what ever known risks. "We must +pay our tribute to Time": ah yes, yes;--and yet I will believe, +so long as we continue together in this sphere of things there +will always be a _potential_ Letter coming out of New England for +me, and the world not fallen irretrievably dumb.--The best is, I +am about going into Scotland, in two days, into deep solitude, +for a couple of months beside the Solway sea: I absolutely need +to have the dust blown out of me, and my mad nerves rested (there +is nothing else quite gone wrong): this unblest _Life of +Frederick_ is now actually to get along into the Printer's hand; +--a good Book being impossible upon it, there shall a bad one be +done, and one's poor existence rid of it:--for which great object +two months of voluntary torpor are considered the fair +preliminary. In another year's time, (if the Fates allow me to +live,) I expect to have got a great deal of rubbish swept into +chaos again. Unlucky it should ever have been dug up, much +of it!-- + +Your Mrs. --- should have had our best welcome, for the sake of +him who sent her, had there been nothing more: but the Lady +never showed face at all; nor could I for a long time get any +trace--and then it was a most faint and distant one as if by +_double_ reflex--of her whereabout: too distant, too difficult +for me, who do not make a call once in the six months lately. I +did mean to go in quest (never had an _address_); but had not +yet rallied for the Enterprise, when Mrs. --- herself wrote that +she had been unwell, that she was going directly for Paris, and +would see us on her return. So be it:--pray only I may not be +absent next! I have not seen or distinctly heard of Miss Bacon +for a year and half past: I often ask myself, what has become of +that poor Lady, and wish I knew of her being safe among her +friends again. I have even lost the address (which at any rate +was probably not a lasting one); perhaps I could find it by the +eye,--but it is five miles away; and my _non-plus-ultra_ for +years past is not above half that distance. Heigho! + +My time is all up and more; and Chaos come again is lying round +me, in the shape of "packing," in a thousand shapes!--Browning is +coming tonight to take leave. Do you know Browning at all? He +is abstruse, but worth knowing.--And what of the _Discourse on +England_ by a certain man? Shame! We always hear of it again as +"out"; and it continues obstinately _in._ Adieu, my friend. + +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLX. Carlyle to Emerson + +The Gill, Cummertrees, Annan, N.B. +28 August, 1856 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter alighted here yesterday;* like a +winged Mercury, bringing "airs from Heaven" (in a sense) along +with his news. I understand very well your indisposition to +write; we must conform to it, as to the law of _Chronos_ (oldest +of the gods); but I will murmur always, "It is such a pity as of +almost no other man!"--You are citizen of a "Republic," and +perhaps fancy yourself republican in an eminent degree: +nevertheless I have remarked there is no man of whom I am so +certain always to get something _kingly:_--and whenever your huge +inarticulate America gets settled into _kingdoms,_ of the New +Model, fit for these Ages which are all upon the _Moult_ just +now, and dreadfully like going to the Devil in the interim,--then +will America, and all nations through her, owe the man Emerson a +_debt,_ far greater than either they or he are in the least aware +of at present! That I consider (for myself) to be an ascertained +fact. For which I myself at least am thankful and have long been. + +--------- +* It is missing now. +--------- + +It pleases me much to know that this English [book], so long +twinkling in our expectations and always drawn back again, is at +last verily to appear: I wish I could get hold of my copy: +there is no Book that would suit me better just now. But we must +wait for four weeks till we get back to Chelsea,--unless I call +find some trusty hand to extract it from the rubbish that will +have accumulated there, and forward it by post. You speak as if +there were something dreadful said of my own sacred self in that +Book: Courage, my Friend, it will be a most miraculous +occurrence to meet with anything said by you that does me _ill;_ +whether the immediate taste of it be sweet or bitter, I will take +it with gratitude, you may depend,--nay even with pleasure, what +perhaps is still more incredible. But an old man deluged for +half a century with the brutally nonsensical vocables of his +fellow-creatures (which he grows to regard soon as _rain,_ "rain +of frogs" or the like, and lifts his umbrella against with +indifference),--such an old gentleman, I assure you, is grateful +for a word that he can recognize perennial sense in; as in this +case is his sure hope. And so be the little Book thrice welcome; +and let all England understand (as some choice portion of England +will) that there has not been a man talking about us these very +many years whose words are worth the least attention in comparison. + +"Post passing!" I must end, in mid-course; so much still +untouched upon. Thanks for Sampson & Co., and let them go their +course upon me. If I can see Mrs. --- about the end of September +or after, I shall be right glad:--but I fear she will have fled +before that?-- + +I am here in my native Country, riding, seabathing, living on +country diet,--uttering no word,--now into the fifth week; have +had such a "retreat" as no La Trappe hardly could have offered +me. A "retreat" _without cilices,_ thistle-mattresses; and with +_silent_ devotions (if any) instead of blockhead spoken ones to +the Virgin and others! There is still an Excursion to the +Highlands ahead, which cannot be avoided;--then home again to +_peine forte et dure._ Good be with you always, dear friend. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 2 December, 1856 + +Dear Emerson,--I am really grieved to have hurt the feelings of +Mr. Phillips;* a gentleman to whom I, on my side, had no +feelings but those of respect and good will! I pray you smooth +him down again, by all wise methods, into at least good-natured +indifference to me. He may depend upon it I could not mean to +irritate him; there lay no gain for me in that! Nor is there +anything of business left now between us. It is doubly and +trebly evident those Stereotype Plates are not to him worth their +prime cost here, still less, their prime cost plus any vestige of +definite motive for me to concern myself in them:--whereupon the +Project falls on its face, and vanishes forever, with apologies +all round. For as to that other method, that is a game I never +thought, and never should think of playing at! You may also tell +him this little Biographical fact, if you think it will any way +help. Some ten or more years ago, I made a similar Bargain with +a New York House (known to you, and now I believe extinct): "10" +or something "percent," of selling price on the Copies Printed, +was to be my return--not for four or five hundred pounds money +laid out, but for various things I did, which gratis would by no +means have been done; in fine, it was their own Offer, made and +accepted in due form; "10 percent on the copies printed." + +--------- +* This refers to a proposed arrangement, which fell through, for +the publication in America by Messrs. Phillips and Sampson, of +Boston, of a complete edition of Carlyle's works, to be printed +from the stereotype plates of the English edition then in course +of issue by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. +--------- + +And how many were "printed," thinks Mr. Phillips? I saw one set; +dreadfully ugly Books, errors in every page;--and to this hour I +have never heard of any other! The amount remains zero net; and +it would appear there was simply one copy "printed," the ugly one +sent to myself, which I instantly despatched again somewhither! +On second thought perhaps you had better _not_ tell Mr. Phillips +this story, at least not in this way. _His_ integrity I would +not even question by insinuation, nor need I, at the point where +we now are. I perceive he sees in extraordinary brilliancy of +illumination his own side of the bargain; and thinks me ignorant +of several things which I am well enough informed about. In +brief, make a perfect peace between us, O friend, and man of +peace; and let the wampums be all wrapped up, and especially the +tomahawks entirely buried, and the thing end forever! To you +also I owe apologies; but not to you do I pay them, knowing from +of old what you are to me. Enough, enough! + +I got your Book by post in the Highlands; and had such a day +over it as falls rarely to my lot! Not for seven years and more +have I got hold of such a Book;--Book by a real man, with eyes in +his head; nobleness, wisdom, humor, and many other things, in +the heart of him. Such Books do not turn up often in the decade, +in the century. In fact I believe it to be worth all the Books +ever written by New England upon Old. Franklin might have +written such a thing (in his own way); no other since! We do +very well with it here, and the wise part of us _best._ That +Chapter on the Church is inimitable; "the Bishop asking a +troublesome gentleman to take wine,"--you should see the kind of +grin it awakens here on our best kind of faces. Excellent the +manner of that, and the matter too dreadfully _true_ in every +part. I do not much seize your idea in regard to "Literature," +though I do details of it, and will try again. Glad of that too, +even in its half state; not "sorry" at _any_ part of it,--you +Sceptic! On the whole, write _again,_ and ever again at greater +length: there lies your only fault to me. And yet I know, that +also is a right noble one, and rare in our day. + +O my friend, save always for me some corner in your memory; I am +very lonely in these months and years,--sunk to the centre of the +Earth, like to be throttled by the Pythons and Mudgods in my old +days;--but shall get out again, too; and be a better boy! No +"hurry" equals mine, and it is in permanence. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 17 May, 1858 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I see no way for you to avoid the Americans but +to come to America. For, first or last, we are all embarking, +and all steering straight to your door. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph +Longworth of Cincinnati are going abroad on their travels. +Possibly, the name is not quite unknown to you. Their father, +Nicholas Longworth, is one of the founders of the city of +Cincinnati, a bigger town than Boston, where he is a huge land +lord and planter, and patron of sculptors and painters. And his +family are most favorably known to all dwellers and strangers, in +the Ohio Valley, as people who have well used their great wealth. +His chief merit is to have introduced a systematic culture of the +wine-grape and wine manufacture, by the importing and settlement +of German planters in that region, and the trade is thriving to +the general benefit. His son Joseph is a well-bred gentleman of +literary tastes, whose position and good heart make him largely +hospitable. His wife is a very attractive and excellent woman, +and they are good friends of mine. It seems I have at some +former time told her that, when she went to England, she should +see you. And they are going abroad, soon, for the first time. +If you are in London, you must be seen of them. + +But I hailed even this need of taxing once more your often taxed +courtesy, as a means to break up my long contumacy to-you-ward. +Please let not the wires be rusted out, so that we cannot weld +them again, and let me feel the subtle fluid streaming strong. +Tell me what is become of _Frederic,_ for whose appearance I have +watched every week for months? I am better ready for him, since +one or two books about Voltaire, Maupertuis, and company, fell in +my way. + +Yet that book will not come which I most wish to read, namely, +the culled results, the quintessence of private conviction, a +_liber veritatis,_ a few sentences, hints of the final moral you +drew from so much penetrating inquest into past and present men. +All writing is necessitated to be exoteric, and written to a +human should instead of to the terrible is. And I say this to +you, because you are the truest and bravest of writers. Every +writer is a skater, who must go partly where he would, and +partly, where the skates carry him; or a sailor, who can only +land where sails can be safely blown. The variations to be +allowed for in the surveyor's compass are nothing like so large +as those that must be allowed for in every book. And a +friendship of old gentlemen who have got rid of many illusions, +survived their ambition, and blushes, and passion for euphony, +and surface harmonies, and tenderness for their accidental +literary stores, but have kept all their curiosity and awe +touching the problems of man and fate and the Cause of causes,--a +friendship of old gentlemen of this fortune is looking more +comely and profitable than anything I have read of love. Such a +dream flatters my incapacities for conversation, for we can all +play at monosyllables, who cannot attempt the gay pictorial +panoramic styles. + +So, if ever I hear that you have betrayed the first symptom of +age, that your back is bent a twentieth of an inch from the +perpendicular, I shall hasten to believe you are shearing your +prodigal overgrowths, and are calling in your troops to the +citadel, and I may come in the first steamer to drop in of +evenings and hear the central monosyllables. + +Be good now again, and send me quickly--though it be the shortest +autograph certificate of....* + +-------- +* The end of this letter is lost. +-------- + + + +CLXIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 2 June, 1858 + +Dear Emerson,--Glad indeed I am to hear of you on any terms, on +any subject. For the last eighteen months I have pretty much +ceased all human correspondence,--writing no Note that was not in +a sense wrung from me; my one society the _Nightmares_ (Prussian +and other) all that while:--but often and often the image of you, +and the thoughts of old days between us, has risen sad upon me; +and I have waited to get loose from the Nightmares to appeal to +you again,--to edacious Time and you. Most likely in a couple of +weeks you would have heard from me again at any rate.--Your +friends shall be welcome to me; no friend of yours can be other +at any time. Nor in fact did anybody ever sent by you prove +other than pleasant in this house, so pray no apologies on that +small score.--If only these Cincinnati Patricians can find me +here when they come? For I am off to the deepest solitudes +discoverable (native Scotland probably) so soon as I can shake +the final tag rags of Printer people off me;--"surely within +three weeks now!" I say to myself. But I shall be back, too, if +all prosper; and your Longworths will be back; and Madam will +stand to her point, I hope. + +That book on Friedrich of Prussia--first half of it, two swoln +unlovely volumes, which treat mainly of his Father, &c., and +leave him at his accession--is just getting out of my hands. One +packet more of Proofs, and I have done with it,--thanks to all +the gods! No job approaching in ugliness to it was ever cut out +for me; nor had I any motive to go on, except the sad negative +one, "Shall we be beaten in our old days, then?"--But it has +thoroughly humbled me,--trampled me down into the _mud,_ there to +wrestle with the accumulated stupidities of Mankind, German, +English, French, and other, for _all_ have borne a hand in these +sad centuries;--and here I emerge at last, not _killed,_ but +almost as good. Seek not to look at the Book,--nay in fact it is +"not to be _published_ till September" (so the man of affairs +settles with me yesterday, "owing to the political &c., to the +season," &c.); my only stipulation was that in ten days I should +be utterly out of it,--not to hear of it again till the Day of +Judgment, and if possible not even then! In fact it is a bad +book, poor, misshapen, feeble, _nearly_ worthless (thanks to +_past_ generations and to me); and my one excuse is, I could not +make it better, all the world having played such a game with it. +Well, well!--How true is that you say about the skater; and the +rider too depending on his vehicles, on his roads, on his et +ceteras! Dismally true have I a thousand times felt it, in these +late operations; never in any so much. And in short the +business of writing has altogether become contemptible to me; +and I am become confirmed in the notion that nobody ought to +write,--unless sheer Fate force him to do it;--and then he ought +(if _not_ of the mountebank genus) to beg to be shot rather. +That is deliberately my opinion,--or far nearer it than you +will believe. + +Once or twice I caught some tone of you in some American +Magazine; utterances highly noteworthy to me; in a sense, the +only thing that is _speech_ at all among my fellow-creatures in +this time. For the years that remain, I suppose we must continue +to grumble out some occasional utterance of that kind: what can +we do, at this late stage? But in the _real_ "Model Republic," +it would have been different with two good boys of this kind!-- + +Though shattered and trampled down to an immense degree, I do not +think any bones are broken yet,--though age truly is here, and +you may engage your berth in the steamer whenever you like. In a +few months I expect to be sensibly improved; but my poor Wife +suffers sadly the last two winters; and I am much distressed by +that item of our affairs. Adieu, dear Emerson: I have lost many +things; let me not lose you till I must in some way! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +P.S. If you read the Newspapers (which I carefully abstain from +doing) they will babble to you about Dickens's "Separation from +Wife," &c., &c.; fact of Separation I believe is true; but all +the rest is mere lies and nonsense. No crime or misdemeanor +specifiable on either side; _unhappy_ together, these good many +years past, and they at length end it.--Sulzer said, "Men are by +nature _good._" "Ach, mein lieber Sulzer, Er kennt nicht diese +verdammte Race," ejaculated Fritz, at hearing such an axiom. + + + + +CLXIII.* Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 9 April, 1859 + +Dear Emerson,--Long months ago there was sent off for you a copy +of _Friedrich_ of Prussia, two big red volumes (for which Chapman +the Publisher had found some "safe, swift" vehicle); and _now_ I +have reason to fear they are still loitering somewhere, or at +least have long loitered sorrow on them! This is to say: If you +have not _yet_ got them, address a line to "Saml. F. Flower, Esq, +Librarian of Antiquarian Society, _Worcester,_ Mass." (forty +miles from you, they say), and that will at once bring them. In +the Devil's name! I never in my life was so near choked; +swimming in this mother of Dead Dogs, and a long spell of it +still ahead! I profoundly _pity myself_ (if no one else does). +You shall hear of me again if I survive,--but really that is +getting beyond a joke with me, and I ought to hold my peace (even +to you), and swim what I can. Your little touch of Human Speech +on _Burns'_* was charming; had got into the papers here (and +been clipt out by me) before your copy came, and has gone far and +wide since. Newberg was to give it me in German, from the +_Allgemeine Zeitung,_ but lost the leaf. Adieu, my Friend; very +dear to me, tho' dumb. + + --T. Carlyle (in such haste as seldom was).** + +--------- +* Emerson's fine speech was made at the celebration of the Burns +Centenary, Boston, January 25, 1859. See his _Miscellanies_ +(Works, vol. xi.), p. 363. + +** The preceding letter was discovered in 1893, in a little +package of letters put aside by Mr. Emerson and marked "Autographs." +--------- + + + + +CLXIV. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 1 May, 1859 + +Dear Carlyle,--Some three weeks ago came to me a note from Mr. +Haven of Worcester, announcing the arrival there of "King +Friedrich," and, after a fortnight, the good book came to my +door. A week later, your letter arrived. I was heartily glad to +get the crimson Book itself. I had looked for it with the first +ships. As it came not, I had made up my mind to that hap also. +It was quite fair: I had disentitled myself. He, the true +friend, had every right to punish me for my sluggish contumacy,-- +backsliding, too, after penitence. So I read with resignation +our blue American reprint, and I enclose to you a leaf from my +journal at the time, which leaf I read afterwards in one of my +lectures at the Music Hall in Boston. But the book came from the +man himself. He did not punish me. He is loyal, but royal as +well, and, I have always noted, has a whim for dealing _en grand +monarque._ The book came, with its irresistible inscription, so +that I am all tenderness and all but tears. The book too is +sovereignly written. I think you the true inventor of the +stereoscope, as having exhibited that art in style, long before +we had heard of it in drawing. + +------- +* This letter and the Extract from the Diary are printed from a +copy of the original supplied to me by the kindness of Mr. +Alexander Ireland, who first printed a portion of the letter in +his "Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Biographical Sketch," London, 1882. +One or two words missing in the copy are inserted from the rough +draft, which, as usual, varies in minor points from the letter +as sent. +-------- + +The letter came also. Every child of mine knows from far that +handwriting, and brings it home with speed. I read without alarm +the pathetical hints of your sad plight in the German labyrinth. +I know too well what invitations and assurance brought you in +there, to fear any lack of guides to bring you out. More +presence of mind and easy change from the microscopic to the +telescopic view does not exist. I await peacefully your issue +from your pretended afflictions. + +What to tell you of my coop and byre? Ah! you are a very poor +fellow, and must be left with your glory. You hug yourself on +missing the illusion of children, and must be pitied as having +one glittering toy the less. I am a victim all my days to +certain graces of form and behavior, and can never come into +equilibrium. Now I am fooled by my own young people, and grow +old contented. The heedless children suddenly take the keenest +hold on life, and foolish papas cling to the world on their +account, as never on their own. Out of sympathy, we _make +believe_ to value the prizes of their ambition and hope. My, two +girls, pupils once or now of Agassiz, are good, healthy, +apprehensive, decided young people, who love life. My boy +divides his time between Cicero and cricket, knows his boat, the +birds, and Walter Scott--verse and prose, through and through,-- +and will go to College next year. Sam Ward and I tickled each +other the other day, in looking over a very good company of young +people, by finding in the new comers a marked improvement on +their parents. There, I flatter myself, I see some emerging of +our people from the prison of their politics. The insolvency of +slavery shows and stares, and we shall perhaps live to see that +putrid Black-vomit extirpated by mere dying and planting. + +I am so glad to find myself speaking once more to you, that I +mean to persist in the practice. Be as glad as you have been. +You and I shall not know each other on this platform as long as +we have known. A correspondence even of twenty-five years should +not be disused unless through some fatal event. Life is too +short, and, with all our poetry and morals, too indigent to allow +such sacrifices. Eyes so old and wary, and which have learned to +look on so much, are gathering an hourly harvest,--and I cannot +spare what on noble terms is offered me. + +With congratulations to Jane Carlyle on the grandeur of the Book, + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +Extract From Diary* + +Here has come into the country, three or four months ago, a +_History of Frederick,_ infinitely the wittiest book that ever +was written,--a book that one would think the English people +would rise up in mass and thank the author for, by cordial +acclamation, and signify, by crowning him with oakleaves, their +joy that such a head existed among them, and sympathizing and +much-reading America would make a new treaty or send a Minister +Extraordinary to offer congratulation of honoring delight to +England, in acknowledgment of this donation,--a book holding so +many memorable and heroic facts, working directly on practice; +with new heroes, things unvoiced before;--the German Plutarch +(now that we have exhausted the Greek and Roman and British +Plutarchs), with a range, too, of thought and wisdom so large and +so elastic, not so much applying as inosculating to every need +and sensibility of man, that we do not read a stereotype page, +rather we see the eyes of the writer looking into ours, mark his +behavior, humming, chuckling, with under-tones and trumpet-tones +and shrugs, and long-commanding glances, stereoscoping every +figure that passes, and every hill, river, road, hummock, and +pebble in the long perspective. With its wonderful new system of +mnemonics, whereby great and insignificant men are ineffaceably +ticketed and marked and modeled in memory by what they were, had, +and did; and withal a book that is a Judgment Day, for its moral +verdict on the men and nations and manners of modern times. + +--------- +* In the first edition, this extract was printed from the +original Diary; it is now printed according to the copy +sent abroad. +-------- + +And this book makes no noise; I have hardly seen a notice of it +in any newspaper or journal, and you would think there was no +such book. I am not aware that Mr. Buchanan has sent a special +messenger to Great Cheyne Row, Chelsea, or that Mr. Dallas has +been instructed to assure Mr. Carlyle of his distinguished +consideration. But the secret wits and hearts of men take note +of it, not the less surely. They have said nothing lately in +praise of the air, or of fire, or of the blessing of love, and +yet, I suppose, they are sensible of these, and not less of this +book, which is like these. + + + + +CLXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 16 April, 1860 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Can booksellers break the seal which the gods +do not, and put me in communication again with the loyalest of +men? On the ground of Mr. Wight's honest proposal to give you a +benefit from his edition,* I, though unwilling, allowed him to +copy the Daguerre of your head. The publishers ask also some +expression of your good will to their work.... + +-------- +* Mr. O.W. Wight of New York, an upright "able editor," who, had +just made arrangements for the publication of a very satisfactory +edition of Carlyle's _Miscellaneous Essays._ +-------- + +I commend you to the gods who love and uphold you, and who do not +like to make their great gifts vain, but teach us that the best +life-insurance is a great task. I hold you to be one of those to +whom all is permitted, and who carry the laws in their hand. +Continue to be good to your old friends. 'T is no matter whether +they write to you or not. If not, they save your time. When +_Friedrich_ is once despatched to gods and men, there was once +some talk that you should come to America! You shall have an +ovation such, and on such sincerity, as none have had. + +Ever affectionately yours, + R.W. Emerson + +I do not know Mr. Wight, but he sends his open letter, which I +fear is already old, for me to write in: and I will not keep it, +lest it lose another steamer. + + + + +CLXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 30 April, 1860 + +Dear Emerson,--It is a special favor of Heaven to me that I hear +of you again by this accident; and am made to answer a word _de +Profundis._ It is constantly among the fairest of the few hopes +that remain for me on the other side of this Stygian Abyss of a +_Friedrich_ (should I ever get through it alive) that I _shall +then_ begin writing to you again, who knows if not see you in the +body before quite taking wing! For I feel always, what I have +some times written, that there is (in a sense) but one completely +human voice to me in the world; and that you are it, and have +been,--thanks to you, whether you speak or not! Let me say also, +while I am at it, that the few words you sent me about those +first Two volumes are present with me in the far more frightful +darknesses of these last Two; and indeed are often almost my one +encouragement. That is a fact, and not exaggerated, though you +think it is. I read some criticisms of my wretched Book, and +hundreds of others I in the gross refused to read; they were in +praise, they were in blame; but not one of them looked into the +eyes of the object, and in genuine human fashion responded to its +human strivings, and recognized it,--completely right, though +with generous exaggeration! That was well done, I can tell you: +a human voice, far out in the waste deeps, among the inarticulate +sea-krakens and obscene monsters, loud-roaring, inexpressibly +ugly, dooming you as if to eternal solitude by way of wages,-- +"hath exceeding much refreshment in it," as my friend Oliver used +to say. + +Having not one spare moment at present, I will answer to _you_ +only the whole contents of that letter; you in your charity will +convey to Mr. Wight what portion belongs to him. Wight, if you +have a chance of him, is worth knowing; a genuine bit of metal, +too thin and ringing for my tastes (hammered, in fact, upon the +Yankee anvils), but recognizably of steel and with a keen fire- +edge. Pray signify to him that he has done a thing agreeable to +me, and that it will be pleasant if I find it will not hurt +_him._ Profit to me out of it, except to keep his own soul clear +and sound (to his own sense, as it always will be to mine), is +perfectly indifferent; and on the whole I thank him heartily for +showing me a chivalrous human brother, instead of the usual +vulturous, malodorous, and much avoidable phenomenon, in +Transatlantic Bibliopoly! This is accurately true; and so far +as his publisher and he can extract encouragement from this, in +the face of vested interests which I cannot judge of, it is +theirs without reserve.... + +Adieu, my friend; I have not written so much in the Letter way, +not, I think, since you last heard of me. In my despair it often +seems as if I should never write more; but be sunk here, and +perish miserably in the most undoable, least worthy, most +disgusting and heart breaking of all the labors I ever had. But +perhaps also not, not quite. In which case-- + +Yours ever truly at any rate, + T. Carlyle + +No time to re-read. I suppose you can decipher. + + + + +CLXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 29 January, 1861 + +Dear Emerson,--The sight of my hand-writing will, I know, be +welcome again. Though I literally do not write the smallest Note +once in a month, or converse with anything but Prussian +Nightmares of a hideous [nature], and with my Horse (who is human +in comparison), and with my poor Wife (who is altogether human, +and heroically cheerful to me, in her poor weak state),--I must +use the five minutes, which have fallen to me today, in +acknowledgment, _du_e by all laws terrestrial and celestial, of +the last Book* that has come from you. + +-------- +* "The Conduct of Life." +-------- + +I read it a great while ago, mostly in sheets, and again read it +in the finely printed form,--I can tell you, if you do not +already guess, with a satisfaction given me by the Books of no +other living mortal. I predicted to your English Bookseller a +great sale even, reckoning it the best of all your Books. What +the sale was or is I nowhere learned; but the basis of my +prophecy remains like the rocks, and will remain. Indeed, except +from my Brother John, I have heard no criticism that had much +rationality,--some of them incredibly irrational (if that matter +had not altogether become a barking of dogs among us);--but I +always believe there are in the mute state a great number of +thinking English souls, who can recognize a Thinker and a Sayer, +of perennially human type and welcome him as the rarest of +miracles, in "such a spread of knowledge" as there now is:--one +English soul of that kind there indubitably is; and I certify +hereby, notarially if you like, that such is emphatically his +view of the matter. You have grown older, more pungent, +piercing;--I never read from you before such lightning-gleams of +meaning as are to be found here. The finale of all, that of +"Illusions" falling on us like snow-showers, but again of "the +gods sitting steadfast on their thrones" all the while,--what a +_Fiat Lux_ is there, into the deeps of a philosophy, which the +vulgar has not, which hardly three men living have, yet dreamt +of! _Well done,_ I say; and so let that matter rest. + +I am still twelve months or so from the end of my Task; very +uncertain often whether I can, even at this snail's pace, hold +out so long. In my life I was never worn nearly so low, and seem +to get _weaker_ monthly. Courage! If I do get through, you +shall hear of me, again. + +Yours forever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 16 April, 1861 + +My Dear Carlyle,--...I have to thank you for the cordial note +which brought me joy, many weeks ago. It was noble and welcome +in all but its boding account of yourself and your task. But I +have had experience of your labors, and these deplorations I have +long since learned to distrust. We have settled it in America, +as I doubt not it is settled in England, that _Frederick_ is a +history which a beneficent Providence is not very likely to +interrupt. And may every kind and tender influence near you and +over you keep the best head in England from all harm. + +Affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXIX. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 8 December, 1862 + +My Dear Friend,--Long ago, as soon as swift steamers could bring +the new book across the sea, I received the third volume of +_Friedrich,_ with your autograph inscription, and read it with +joy. Not a word went to the beloved author, for I do not write +or think. I would wait perhaps for happier days, as our +President Lincoln will not even emancipate slaves, until on the +heels of a victory, or the semblance of such. But he waited in +vain for his triumph, nor dare I in my heavy months expect bright +days. The book was heartily grateful, and square to the author's +imperial scale. You have lighted the glooms, and engineered away +the pits, whereof you poetically pleased yourself with +complaining, in your sometime letter to me, clean out of it, +according to the high Italian rule, and have let sunshine and +pure air enfold the scene. First, I read it honestly through for +the history; then I pause and speculate on the Muse that +inspires, and the friend that reports it. 'T is sovereignly +written, above all literature, dictating to all mortals what they +shall accept as fated and final for their salvation. It is +Mankind's Bill of Rights and Duties, the royal proclamation of +Intellect ascending the throne, announcing its good pleasure, +that, hereafter, _as heretofore,_ and now once for all, the World +shall be governed by Common Sense and law of Morals, or shall go +to ruin. + +--------- +* Portions of this and of the following letter of Emerson have +been printed by Mr. Alexander Ireland in his "Ralph Waldo +Emerson: Recollections of his Visits to England," &c. London, +1882. +---------- + +But the manner of it!--the author sitting as Demiurgus, trotting +out his manikins, coaxing and bantering them, amused with their +good performance, patting them on the back, and rating the +naughty dolls when they misbehave; and communicating his mind +ever in measure, just as much as the young public can understand; +hinting the future, when it would be useful; recalling now and +then illustrative antecedents of the actor, impressing, the +reader that he is in possession of the entire history centrally +seen, that his investigation has been exhaustive, and that he +descends too on the petty plot of Prussia from higher and +cosmical surveys. Better I like the sound sense and the absolute +independence of the tone, which may put kings in fear. And, as +the reader shares, according to his intelligence, the haughty +_coup d'oeil_ of this genius, and shares it with delight, I +recommend to all governors, English, French, Austrian, and other, +to double their guards, and look carefully to the censorship of +the press. I find, as ever in your books, that one man has +deserved well of mankind for restoring the Scholar's profession +to its highest use and dignity.* I find also that you are very +wilful, and have made a covenant with your eyes that they shall +not see anything you do not wish they should. But I was heartily +glad to read somewhere that your book was nearly finished in the +manuscript, for I could wish you to sit and taste your fame, if +that were not contrary to law of Olympus. My joints ache to +think of your rugged labor. Now that you have conquered to +yourself such a huge kingdom among men, can you not give yourself +breath, and chat a little, an Emeritus in the eternal university, +and write a gossiping letter to an old American friend or so? +Alas, I own that I have no right to say this last,--I who +write never. + +-------- +* As long before as 1843 Emerson wrote in his Diary: "Carlyle in +his new book" (_Past and Present_), "as everywhere, is a +continuer of the great line of scholars in the world, of Horace, +Varro, Pliny, Erasmus, Scaliger, Milton, and well sustains their +office in ample credit and honor." +--------- + +Here we read no books. The war is our sole and doleful +instructor. All our bright young men go into it, to be misused +and sacrificed hitherto by incapable leaders. One lesson they +all learn,--to hate slavery, _teterrima causa._ But the issue +does not yet appear. We must get ourselves morally right. +Nobody can help us. 'T is of no account what England or France +may do. Unless backed by our profligate parties, their action +would be nugatory, and, if so backed, the worst. But even the +war is better than the degrading and descending politics that +preceded it for decades of years, and our legislation has made +great strides, and if we can stave off that fury of trade which +rushes to peace at the cost of replacing the South in the _status +ante bellum,_ we can, with something more of courage, leave the +problem to another score of years,--free labor to fight with the +Beast, and see if bales and barrels and baskets cannot find out +that they pass more commodiously and surely to their ports +through free hands, than through barbarians. + +I grieved that the good Clough, the generous, susceptible +scholar, should die. I read over his _Bothie_ again, full of the +wine of youth at Oxford. I delight in Matthew Arnold's fine +criticism in two little books. Give affectionate remembrances +from me to Jane Carlyle, whom ---'s happiness and accurate +reporting restored to me in brightest image. + +Always faithfully yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 8 March, 1864 + +Dear Emerson,--This will be delivered to you by the Hon. Lyulph +Stanley, an excellent, intelligent young gentleman whom I have +known ever since his infancy,--his father and mother being among +my very oldest friends in London; "Lord and Lady Stanley of +Alderley" (not of Knowesley, but a cadet branch of it), whom +perhaps you did not meet while here. + +My young Friend is coming to look with his own eyes at your huge +and hugely travailing Country;--and I think will agree with you, +better than he does with me, in regard to that latest phenomenon. +At all events, he regards "Emerson" as intelligent Englishmen all +do; and you will please me much by giving him your friendliest +reception and furtherance,--which I can certify that he deserves +for his own sake, not counting mine at all. + +Probably _he_ may deliver you the Vol. IV. of _Frederic;_ he +will tell you our news (part of which, what regards my poor Wife, +is very bad, though God be thanked not yet the worst);--and, in +some six months, he may bring me back some human tidings from +Concord, a place which always inhabits my memory,--though it is +so dumb latterly! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 26 September, 1864 + +Dear Carlyle,--Your friend, young Stanley, brought me your letter +now too many days ago. It contained heavy news of your +household,--yet such as in these our autumnal days we must await +with what firmness we can. I hear with pain that your Wife, whom +I have only seen beaming goodness and intelligence, has suffered +and suffers so severely. I recall my first visit to your house, +when I pronounced you wise and fortunate in relations wherein +best men are often neither wise nor fortunate. I had already +heard rumors of her serious illness. Send me word, I pray you, +that there is better health and hope. For the rest, the Colonna +motto would fit your letter, "Though sad, I am strong." + +I had received in July, forwarded by Stanley, on his flight +through Boston, the fourth Volume of _Friedrich,_ and it was my +best reading in the summer, and for weeks my only reading: One +fact was paramount in all the good I drew from it, that +whomsoever many years had used and worn, they had not yet broken +any fibre of your force:--a pure joy to me, who abhor the inroads +which time makes on me and on my friends. To live too long is +the capital misfortune, and I sometimes think, if we shall not +parry it by better art of living, we shall learn to include in +our morals some bolder control of the facts. I read once, that +Jacobi declared that he had some thoughts which--if he should +entertain them--would put him to death: and perhaps we have +weapons in our intellectual armory that are to save us from +disgrace and impertinent relation to the world we live in. But +this book will excuse you from any unseemly haste to make up your +accounts, nay, holds you to fulfil your career with all amplitude +and calmness. I found joy and pride in it, and discerned a +golden chain of continuity not often seen in the works of men, +apprising me that one good head and great heart remained in +England,--immovable, superior to his own eccentricities and +perversities, nay, wearing these, I can well believe, as a jaunty +coat or red cockade to defy or mislead idlers, for the better +securing his own peace, and the very ends which the idlers fancy +he resists. England's lease of power is good during his days. + +I have in these last years lamented that you had not made the +visit to America, which in earlier years you projected or +favored. It would have made it impossible that your name should +be cited for one moment on the side of the enemies of mankind. +Ten days' residence in this country would have made you the organ +of the sanity of England and of Europe to us and to them, and +have shown you the necessities and aspirations which struggle up +in our Free States, which, as yet, have no organ to others, and +are ill and unsteadily articulated here. In our today's division +of Republican and Democrat, it is certain that the American +nationality lies in the Republican party (mixed and multiform +though that party be); and I hold it not less certain, that, +viewing all the nationalities of the world, the battle for +Humanity is, at this hour, in America. A few days here would +show you the disgusting composition of the Party which within the +Union resists the national action. Take from it the wild Irish +element, imported in the last twenty-five year's into this +country, and led by Romish Priests, who sympathize, of course, +with despotism, and you would bereave it of all its numerical +strength. A man intelligent and virtuous is not to be found on +that side. Ah! how gladly I would enlist you, with your +thunderbolt, on our part! How gladly enlist the wise, +thoughtful, efficient pens and voices of England! We want +England and Europe to hold our people stanch to their best +tendency. Are English of this day incapable of a great +sentiment? Can they not leave caviling at petty failures, and +bad manners, and at the dunce part (always the largest part in +human affairs), and leap to the suggestions and finger-pointings +of the gods, which, above the understanding, feed the hopes and +guide the wills of men? This war has been conducted over the +heads of all the actors in it; and the foolish terrors, "What +shall we do with the negro?" "The entire black population is +coming North to be fed," &c., have strangely ended in the fact +that the black refuses to leave his climate; gets his living and +the living of his employers there, as he has always done; is the +natural ally and soldier of the Republic, in that climate; now +takes the place of two hundred thousand white soldiers; and will +be, as the conquest of the country proceeds, its garrison, till +peace, without slavery, returns. Slaveholders in London have +filled English ears with their wishes and perhaps beliefs; and +our people, generals, and politicians have carried the like, at +first, to the war, until corrected by irresistible experience. I +shall always respect War hereafter. The cost of life, the dreary +havoc of comfort and time, are overpaid by the vistas it opens of +Eternal Life, Eternal Law, reconstructing and uplifting Society, +--breaks up the old horizon, and we see through the rifts a wider. +The dismal Malthus, the dismal DeBow, have had their night. + +Our Census of 1860, and the War, are poems, which will, in the +next age, inspire a genius like your own. I hate to write you a +newspaper, but, in these times, 't is wonderful what sublime +lessons I have once and again read on the Bulletin-boards in the +streets. Everybody has been wrong in his guess, except good +women, who never despair of an Ideal right. + +I thank you for sending to me so gracious a gentleman as Mr. +Stanley, who interested us in every manner, by his elegance, his +accurate information of that we wished to know, and his +surprising acquaintance with the camp and military politics on +our frontier. I regretted that I could see him so little. He +has used his time to the best purpose, and I should gladly have +learned all his adventures from so competent a witness. Forgive +this long writing, and keep the old kindness which I prize above +words. My kindest salutations to the dear invalid! + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Cummertrees, Annan, Scotland, 14 June, 1865 + +Dear Emerson,--Though my hand is shaking (as you sadly notice) I +determine to write you a little Note today. What a severance +there has been these many sad years past!--In the first days of +February I ended my weary Book; a totally worn-out man, got to +shore again after far the ugliest sea he had ever swam in. In +April or the end of March, when the book was published, I duly +handed out a Copy for Concord and you; it was to be sent by +mail; but, as my Publisher (a _new_ Chapman, very unlike the +_old_) discloses to me lately an incredible negligence on such +points, it is quite possible the dog may _not,_ for a long while, +have put it in the Post-Office (though he faithfully charged me +the postage of it, and was paid), and that the poor waif may +never yet have reached you! Patience: it will come soon +enough,--there are two thick volumes, and they will stand you a +great deal of reading; stiff rather than "light." + +Since February last, I have been sauntering about in Devonshire, +in Chelsea, hither, thither; idle as a dry bone, in fact, a +creature sinking into deeper and deeper _collapse,_ after twelve +years of such mulish pulling and pushing; creature now good for +nothing seemingly, and much indifferent to being so in +permanence, if that be the arrangement come upon by the Powers +that made us. Some three or four weeks ago, I came rolling down +hither, into this old nook of my Birthland, to see poor old +Annandale again with eyes, and the poor remnants of kindred and +loved ones still left me there; I was not at first very lucky +(lost sleep, &c.); but am now doing better, pretty much got +adjusted to my new element, new to me since about six years +past,--the longest absence I ever had from it before. My Work +was getting desperate at that time; and I silently said to +myself, "We won't return till _it_ is done, or _you_ are done, +my man!" + +This is my eldest living sister's house; one of the most rustic +Farmhouses in the world, but abounding in all that is needful to +me, especially in the truest, _silently_-active affection, the +humble generosity of which is itself medicine and balm. The +place is airy, on dry waving knolls cheerfully (with such _water_ +as I never drank elsewhere, except at Malvern) all round me are +the Mountains, Cheviot and Galloway (three to fifteen miles off), +Cumberland and Yorkshire (say forty and fifty, with the Solway +brine and sands intervening). I live in total solitude, +sauntering moodily in thin checkered woods, galloping about, once +daily, by old lanes and roads, oftenest latterly on the wide +expanses of Solway shore (when the tide is _out!_) where I see +bright busy Cottages far off, houses over even in Cumberland, and +the beautifulest amphitheatre of eternal Hills,--but meet no +living creature; and have endless thoughts as loving and as sad +and sombre as I like. My youngest Brother (whom on the whole I +like best, a rustic man, the express image of my Father in his +ways of living and thinking) is within ten miles of me; Brother +John "the Doctor" has come down to Dumfries to a sister (twelve +miles off), and runs over to me by rail now and then in few +minutes. I have Books; but can hardly be troubled with them. +Pitiful temporary babble and balderdash, in comparison to what +the Silences can say to one. Enough of all that: you perceive +me sufficiently at this point of my Pilgrimage, as withdrawn to +_Hades_ for the time being; intending a month's walk there, till +the muddy semi-solutions settle into sediment according to what +laws they have, and there be perhaps a partial restoration of +clearness. I have to go deeper into Scotland by and by, perhaps +to try _sailing,_ which generally agrees with me; but till the +end of September I hope there will be no London farther. My poor +Wife, who is again poorly since I left (and has had frightful +sufferings, last year especially) will probably join me in this +region before I leave it. And see here, This is authentically +the way we figure in the eye of the Sun; and something like what +your spectacles, could they reach across the Ocean into these +nooks, would teach you of us. There are three Photographs which +I reckon fairly _like;_ _these_ are properly what I had to send +you today,--little thinking that so much surplusage would +accumulate about them; to which I now at once put an end. Your +friend Conway,* who is a boundless admirer of yours, used to come +our way regularly now and then; and we always liked him well. A +man of most gentlemanly, ingenious ways; turn of thought always +loyal and manly, though tending to be rather _winged_ than +solidly ambulatory. He talked of coming to Scotland too; but it +seems uncertain whether we shall meet. He is clearly rather a +favorite among the London people,--and tries to explain America +to them; I know not if with any success. As for me, I have +entirely lost count and reckoning of your enormous element, and +its enormous affairs and procedures for some time past; and can +only wish (which no man more heartily does) that all may issue in +as blessed a way as you hope. Fat--(if you know and his fat +commonplace at all) amused me much by a thing he had heard of +yours in some lecture a year or two ago. "The American Eagle is +a mighty bird; but what is he to the American Peacock." At +which all the audience had exploded into laughter. Very good. +Adieu, old Friend. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +--------- +* Mr. Moncure D. Conway. +--------- + + + + +CLXXIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 7 January, 1866 + +Dear Carlyle,--Is it too late to send a letter to your door to +claim an old right to enter, and to scatter all your convictions +that I had passed under the earth? You had not to learn what a +sluggish pen mine is. Of course, the sluggishness grows on me, +and even such a trumpet at my gate as a letter from you +heralding-in noble books, whilst it gives me joy, cannot heal the +paralysis. Yet your letter deeply interested me, with the +account of your rest so well earned. You had fought your great +battle, and might roll in the grass, or ride your pony, or shout +to the Cumberland or Scotland echoes, with largest leave of men +and gods. My lethargies have not dulled my delight in good +books. I read these in the bright days of our new peace, which +added a lustre to every genial work. Now first we had a right to +read, for the very bookworms were driven out of doors whilst the +war lasted. I found in the book no trace of age, which your +letter so impressively claimed. In the book, the hand does not +shake, the mind is ubiquitous. The treatment is so spontaneous, +self-respecting, defiant,--liberties with your hero as if he were +your client, or your son, and you were proud of him, and yet can +check and chide him, and even put him in the corner when he is +not a good boy, freedoms with kings, and reputations, and +nations, yes, and with principles too,--that each reader, I +suppose, feels complimented by the confidences with which he is +honored by this free-tongued, masterful Hermes.--Who knows what +the [Greek] will say next? This humor of telling the story in a +gale,--bantering, scoffing, at the hero, at the enemy, at the +learned reporters,--is a perpetual flattery to the admiring +student,--the author abusing the whole world as mad dunces,--all +but you and I, reader! Ellery Channing borrowed my Volumes V. +and VI., worked slowly through them,--midway came to me for +Volumes I., II., III., IV., which he had long already read, and +at last returned all with this word, "If you write to Mr. +Carlyle, you may say to him, that I _have_ read these books, +and they have made it impossible for me to read any other books +but his." + +'T is a good proof of their penetrative force, the influence on +the new Stirling, who writes "The Secret of Hegel." He is quite +as much a student of Carlyle to learn treatment, as of Hegel for +his matter, and plays the same game on his essence-dividing +German, which he has learned of you on _Friedrich._ I have +read a good deal in this book of Stirling's, and have not done +with it. + +One or two errata I noticed in the last volumes of _Friedrich,_ +though the books are now lent, and I cannot indicate the pages. +Fort Pulaski, which is near Savannah, is set down as near +Charleston. Charleston, South Carolina, your printer has twice +called Charlestown, which is the name of the town in +Massachusetts in which Bunker Hill stands.--Bancroft told me +that the letters of Montcalm are spurious. We always write and +say Ticonderoga. + +I am sorry that Jonathan looks so unamiable seen from your +island. Yet I have too much respect for the writing profession +to complain of it. It is a necessity of rhetoric that there +should be shades, and, I suppose, geography and government always +determine, even for the greatest wits, where they shall lay their +shadows. But I have always 'the belief that a trip across the +sea would have abated your despair of us. The world is laid out +here in large lots, and the swing of natural laws is shared by +the population, as it is not--or not as much--in your feudal +Europe. My countrymen do not content me, but they are +susceptible of inspirations. In the war it was humanity that +showed itself to advantage,--the leaders were prompted and +corrected by the intuitions of the people, they still demanding +the more generous and decisive measure, and giving their sons and +their estates as we had no example before. In this heat, they +had sharper perceptions of policy, of the ways and means and the +life of nations, and on every side we read or heard fate-words, +in private letters, in railway cars, or in the journals. We were +proud of the people and believed they would not go down from this +height. But Peace came, and every one ran back into his shop +again, and can hardly be won to patriotism more, even to the +point of chasing away the thieves that are stealing not only +the public gold, but the newly won rights of the slave, and +the new muzzles we had contrived to keep the planter from +sucking his blood. + +Very welcome to me were the photographs,--your own, and Jane +Carlyle's. Hers, now seen here for the first time, was closely +scanned, and confirmed the better accounts that had come of her +improved health. Your earlier tidings of her had not been +encouraging. I recognized still erect the wise, friendly +presence first seen at Craigenputtock. Of your own--the hatted +head is good, but more can be read in the head leaning on the +hand, and the one in a cloak. + +At the end of much writing, I have little to tell you of myself. +I am a bad subject for autobiography. As I adjourn letters, so I +adjourn my best tasks.... My wife joins me in very kind regards +to Mrs. Carlyle. Use your old magnanimity to me, and punish my +stony ingratitudes by new letters from time to time. + +Ever affectionately and gratefully yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 16 May, 1866 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I have just been shown a private letter from +Moncure Conway to one of his friends here, giving some tidings of +your sad return to an empty home. We had the first news last +week. And so it is. The stroke long threatened has fallen at +last, in the mildest form to its victim, and relieved to you by +long and repeated reprieves. I must think her fortunate also in +this gentle departure, as she had been in her serene and honored +career. We would not for ourselves count covetously the +descending steps after we have passed the top of the mount, or +grudge to spare some of the days of decay. And you will have the +peace of knowing her safe, and no longer a victim. I have found +myself recalling an old verse which one utters to the parting +soul,-- + + "For thou hast passed all chance of human life, + And not again to thee shall beauty die." + + It is thirty-three years in July, I believe, since I first saw +her, and her conversation and faultless manners gave assurance of +a good and happy future. As I have not witnessed any decline, I +can hardly believe in any, and still recall vividly the youthful +wife, and her blithe account of her letters and homages from +Goethe, and the details she gave of her intended visit to Weimar, +and its disappointment. Her goodness to me and to my friends was +ever perfect, and all Americans have agreed in her praise. +Elizabeth Hoar remembers her with entire sympathy and regard. + +I could heartily wish to see you for an hour in these lonely +days. Your friends, I know, will approach you as tenderly as +friends can; and I can believe that labor--all whose precious +secrets you know--will prove a consoler,--though it cannot quite +avail, for she was the rest that rewarded labor. It is good that +you are strong, and built for endurance. Nor will you shun to +consult the awful oracles which in these hours of tenderness are +sometimes vouchsafed. If to any, to you. + +I rejoice that she stayed to enjoy the knowledge of your good day +at Edinburgh, which is a leaf we would not spare from your book +of life. It was a right manly speech to be so made, and is a +voucher of unbroken strength,--and the surroundings, as I learn, +were all the happiest,--with no hint of change. + +I pray you bear in mind your own counsels. Long years you must +still achieve, and, I hope, neither grief nor weariness will let +you "join the dim choir of the bards that have been," until you +have written the book I wish and wait for,--the sincerest +confessions of your best hours. + +My wife prays to be remembered to you with sympathy and affection. + +Ever yours faithfully, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Mentone, France, Alpes Maritimes +27 January, 1867 + +My Dear Emerson,--It is along time since I last wrote to you; +and a long distance in space and in fortune,--from the shores of +the Solway in summer 1865, to this niche of the Alps and +Mediterranean today, after what has befallen me in the interim. +A longer interval, I think, and surely by far a sadder, than ever +occurred between us before, since we first met in the Scotch +moors, some five and thirty years ago. You have written me +various Notes, too, and Letters, all good and cheering to me,-- +almost the only truly human speech I have heard from anybody +living;--and still my stony silence could not be broken; not +till now, though often looking forward to it, could I resolve on +such a thing. You will think me far gone, and much bankrupt in +hope and heart;--and indeed I am; as good as without hope and +without fear; a gloomily serious, silent, and sad old man; +gazing into the final chasm of things, in mute dialogue with +"Death, Judgment, and Eternity" (dialogue _mute_ on _both_ +sides!), not caring to discourse with poor articulate-speaking +fellow creatures on their sorts of topics. It is right of me; +and yet also it is not right. I often feel that I had better be +dead than thus indifferent, contemptuous, disgusted with the +world and its roaring nonsense, which I have no thought farther +of lifting a finger to help, and only try to keep out of the way +of, and shut my door against. But the truth is, I was nearly +killed by that hideous Book on Friedrich,--twelve years in +continuous wrestle with the nightmares and the subterranean +hydras;--nearly _killed,_ and had often thought I should be +altogether, and must die leaving the monster not so much as +finished! This is one truth, not so evident to any friend or +onlooker as it is to myself: and then there is another, known to +myself alone, as it were; and of which I am best not to speak to +others, or to speak to them no farther. By the calamity of April +last, I lost my little all in this world; and have no soul left +who can make any corner of this world into a _home_ for me any +more. Bright, heroic, tender, true and noble was that lost +treasure of my heart, who faithfully accompanied me in all the +rocky ways and climbings; and I am forever poor without her. +She was snatched from me in a moment,--as by a death from the +gods. Very beautiful her death was; radiantly beautiful (to +those who understand it) had all her life been _quid plura?_ I +should be among the dullest and stupidest, if I were not among +the saddest of all men. But not a word more on all this. + +All summer last, my one solacement in the form of work was +writing, and sorting of old documents and recollections; +summoning out again into clearness old scenes that had now closed +on me without return. Sad, and in a sense sacred; it was like a +kind of _worship;_ the only _devout_ time I had had for a great +while past. These things I have half or wholly the intention to +burn out of the way before I myself die:--but such continues +still mainly my employment,--so many hours every forenoon; what +I call the "work" of my day;--to me, if to no other, it is +useful; to reduce matters to writing means that you shall know +them, see them in their origins and sequences, in their essential +lineaments, considerably better than you ever did before. To set +about writing my own _Life_ would be no less than horrible to me; +and shall of a certainty never be done. The common impious +vulgar of this earth, what has it to do with my life or me? Let +dignified oblivion, silence, and the vacant azure of Eternity +swallow _me;_ for my share of it, that, verily, is the +handsomest, or one handsome way, of settling my poor account with +the _canaille_ of mankind extant and to come. "Immortal glory," +is not that a beautiful thing, in the Shakespeare Clubs and +Literary Gazettes of our improved Epoch?--I did not leave London, +except for fourteen days in August, to a fine and high old Lady- +friend's in Kent; where, riding about the woods and by the sea- +beaches and chalk cliffs, in utter silence, I felt sadder than +ever, though a little less _miserably_ so, than in the intrusive +babblements of London, which I could not quite lock out of doors. +We read, at first, Tennyson's _Idyls,_ with profound recognition +of the finely elaborated execution, and also of the inward +perfection of _vacancy,_--and, to say truth, with considerable +impatience at being treated so very like infants, though the +lollipops were so superlative. We gladly changed for one +Emerson's _English Traits;_ and read that, with increasing and +ever increasing satisfaction every evening; blessing Heaven that +there were still Books for grown-up people too! That truly is a +Book all full of thoughts like winged arrows (thanks to the +Bowyer from us both):--my Lady-friend's name is Miss Davenport +Bromley; it was at Wooton, in her Grandfather's House, in +Staffordshire, that Rousseau took shelter in 1760; and one +hundred and six years later she was reading Emerson to me with a +recognition that would have pleased the man, had he seen it. + +About that same time my health and humors being evidently so, the +Dowager Lady Ashburton (not the high Lady you saw, but a +Successor of Mackenzie-Highland type), who wanders mostly about +the Continent since her widowhood, for the sake of a child's +health, began pressing and inviting me to spend the blade months +of Winter here in her Villa with her;--all friends warmly +seconding and urging; by one of whom I was at last snatched off, +as if by the hair of the head, (in spite of my violent No, no!) +on the eve of Christmas last, and have been here ever since,-- +really with improved omens. The place is beautiful as a very +picture, the climate superlative (today a sun and sky like very +June); the _hospitality_ of usage beyond example. It is likely +I shall be here another six weeks, or longer. If you please to +write me, the address is on the margin; and I will answer. Adieu. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 18 November, 1869 + +Dear Emerson,--It is near three years since I last wrote to you; +from Mentone, under the Ligurian Olive and Orange trees, and +their sombre foreign shadows, and still more sombre suggestings +and promptings; the saddest, probably, of all living men. That +you made no answer I know right well means only, "Alas, what can +I say to him of consolatory that he does not himself know!" Far +from a fault, or perhaps even a mistake on your part;--nor have I +felt it otherwise. Sure enough, among the lights that have gone +out for me, and are still going, one after one, under the +inexorable Decree, in this now dusky and lonely world, I count +with frequent regret that our Correspondence (not by absolute +hest of Fate) should have fallen extinct, or into such abeyance: +but I interpret it as you see; and my love and brotherhood to +you remain alive, and will while I myself do. Enough of this. +By lucky chance, as you perceive, you are again to get one +written Letter from me, and I a reply from you, before the final +Silence come. The case is this. + +For many years back, a thought, which I used to check again as +fond and silly, has been occasionally present to me,--Of +testifying my gratitude to New England (New England, acting +mainly through one of her Sons called Waldo Emerson), _by +bequeathing to it my poor Falstaf Regiment, latterly two Falstaf +Regiments of Books,_ those I purchased and used in writing +_Cromwell,_ and ditto those on _Friedrich the Great._ "This +could be done," I often said to myself; "this _could_ perhaps; +and this would be a real satisfaction to me. But who then +would march through Coventry with such a set!" The extreme +insignificance of the Gift, this and nothing else, always gave +me pause. + +Last Summer, I was lucky enough to meet with your friend C.E. +Norton, and renew many old Massachusetts recollections, in free +talk with [him]....; to him I spoke of the affair; candidly +describing it, especially the above questionable feature of it, +so far as I could; and his answer, then, and more deliberately +afterwards, was so hopeful, hearty, and decisive, that--in effect +it has decided me; and I am this day writing to him that such is +the poor fact, and that I need farther instructions on it so soon +as you two have taken counsel together. + +To say more about the infinitesimally small value of the Books +would be superfluous: nay, in truth, many or most of them are +not without intrinsic value, one or two are even excellent as +Books; and all of them, it may perhaps be said, have a kind of +_symbolic_ or _biographic_ value; and testify (a thing not +useless) _on what slender commissariat stores_ considerable +campaigns, twelve years long or so, may be carried on in this +world. Perhaps you already knew of me, what the _Cromwell_ and +_Friedrich_ collection might itself intimate, that much _buying_ +of Books was never a habit of mine,--far the reverse, even to +this day! + +Well, my Friend, you will have a meeting with Norton so soon as +handy; and let me know what is next to be done. And that, in +your official capacity, is all I have to say to you at present. + +Unofficially there were much,--much that is mournful, but perhaps +also something that is good and blessed, and though the saddest, +also the highest, the lovingest and best; as beseems Time's +sunset, now coming nigh. At present I will say only that, in +bodily health, I am not to be called Ill, for a man who will be +seventy-four next month; nor, on the spiritual side, has +anything been laid upon me that is quite beyond my strength. +More miserable I have often been; though as solitary, soft of +heart, and sad, of course never. + +Publisher Chapman, when I question him whether you for certain +_get_ your Monthly Volume of what they call "The Library +Edition," assures me that "it is beyond doubt":--I confess I +should still like to be _better_ assured. If all is _right,_ you +should, by the time this Letter arrives, be receiving or have +received your thirteenth Volume, last of the _Miscellanies._ +Adieu, my Friend. + +Ever truly yours, + T. Carlyle + + + +CLXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 4 January, 1870 + +Dear Emerson,--A month ago or more I wrote, by the same post, to +you and to Norton about those Books for Harvard College; and in +late days have been expecting your joint answer. From Norton +yesternight I receive what is here copied for your perusal; it +has come round by Florence as you see, and given me real pleasure +and instruction. From you, who are possibly also away from home, +I have yet nothing; but expect now soon to have a few words. +There did arrive, one evening lately, your two pretty _volumes_ +of _Collected Works,_ a pleasant salutation from you--which set +me upon reading again what I thought I knew well before:--but the +Letter is still to come. + +Norton's hints are such a complete instruction to me that I see +my way straight through the business, and might, by Note of +"Bequest" and memorandum for the Barings, finish it in half an +hour: nevertheless I will wait for your Letter, and punctually +do nothing till your directions too are before me. Pray write, +therefore; all is lying ready here. Since you heard last, I +have got two Catalogues made out, approximately correct; one is +to lie here till the Bequest be executed; the other I thought of +sending to you against the day? This is my own invention in +regard to the affair since I wrote last. Approve of it, and you +shall have your copy by Book-post at once. "_Approximately_ +correct"; absolutely I cannot get it to be. But I need not +doubt the Pious Purpose will be piously and even sacredly +fulfilled;--and your Catalogue will be a kind of evidence that it +is. Adieu, dear Emerson, till your Letter come. + +Yours ever, + Thomas Carlyle + + + + +CLXXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 23 January, 1870* + +My Dear Carlyle,--'T is a sad apology that I have to offer for +delays which no apology can retrieve. I received your first +letter with pure joy, but in the midst of extreme inefficiency. +I had suddenly yielded to a proposition of Fields & Co. to +manufacture a book for a given day. The book was planned, and +going on passably, when it was found better to divide the matter, +and separate, and postpone the purely literary portion (criticism +chiefly), and therefore to modify and swell the elected part. +The attempt proved more difficult than I had believed, for I only +write by spasms, and these ever more rare,--and daemons that have +no ears. Meantime the publication day was announced, and the +printer at the door. Then came your letter in the shortening +days. When I drudged to keep my word, _invita Minerva._ + +--------- +* This letter is printed from an imperfect rough draft. +--------- + +I could not write in my book, and I could not write a letter. +Tomorrow and many morrows made things worse, for we have +indifferent health in the house, and, as it chanced, unusual +strain of affairs,--which always come when they should not. For +one thing--I have just sold a house which I once built opposite +my own. But I will leave the bad month, which I hope will not +match itself in my lifetime. Only 't is pathetic and remorseful +to me that any purpose of yours, especially, a purpose so +inspired, should find me imbecile. + +Heartily I delight in your proposed disposition of the books. It +has every charm of surprise, and nobleness, and large affection. +The act will deeply gratify a multitude of good men, who will see +in it your real sympathy with the welfare of the country. I hate +that there should be a moment of delay in the completing of your +provisions,--and that I of all men should be the cause! Norton's +letter is perfect on his part, and needs no addition, I believe, +from me. You had not in your first letter named _Cambridge,_ and +I had been meditating that he would probably have divided your +attention between Harvard and the Boston Public Library,--now the +richest in the country, at first founded by the gifts of Joshua +Bates (of London), and since enriched by the city and private +donors, Theodore Parker among them. But after conversation with +two or three friends, I had decided that Harvard College was the +right beneficiary, as being the mother real or adoptive of a +great number of your lovers and readers in America, and because a +College is a seat of sentiment and cosmical relations. The +Library is outgrown by other libraries in the Country, counts +only 119,000 bound volumes in 1868; the several departments of +Divinity, Law, Medicine, and Natural Science in the University +having special libraries, that together add some 40,000 more. +The College is newly active (with its new President Eliot, a +cousin of Norton's) and expansive in all directions. And the +Library will be relieved through subscriptions now being +collected among the Alumni with the special purpose of securing +to it an adequate fund for annual increase. + +I shall then write to Norton at once that I concur with him in +the destination of the books to Harvard College, and approve +entirely his advices in regard to details. And so soon as you +send me the Catalogue I shall, if you permit, communicate your +design to President Eliot and the Corporation. + +One thing I shall add to the Catalogue now or later (perhaps only +by bequest), your own prized gift to me, in 1848, of Wood's +_Athenae Oxonienses,_ which I have lately had rebound, and in +which every pen and pencil mark of yours is notable. + +The stately books of the New Edition have duly come from the +unforgetting friend. I have _Sartor, Schiller, French +Revolution,_ 3 vols., _Miscellanies,_ Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,--ten +volumes in all, excellently printed and dressed, and full of +memories and electricity. + +I have much to say, but of things not opportune at this moment, +and in spite of my long contumacy dare believe that I shall +quickly write again my proper letter to my friend, whose every +word I watchfully read and remember. + + + + +CLXXIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Melchet Court, Romsey, 14 February, 1870 + +Dear Emerson,--Three days ago I at last received your Letter; +with very great pleasure and thankfulness, as you may suppose. +Indeed, it is quite strangely interesting to see face to face my +old Emerson again, not a feature of him changed, whom I have +known all the best part of my life. + +I am very glad, withal, to find that you agree completely with +Norton and myself in regard to that small Harvard matter. + +This is not Chelsea, as you perceive, this is a hospitable +mansion in Hampshire; but I expect to be in Chelsea within about +a week; once there, I shall immediately despatch to you one of +the three Catalogues I have, with a more deliberate letter than I +at present have the means of writing or dictating. + +Yours ever truly, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 24 February, 1870 + +Dear Emerson,--At length I have got home from those sumptuous +tumults ("Melchet Court" is the Dowager Lady Ashburton's House, +whose late Husband, an estimable friend of mine, and _half +American,_ you may remember here); and I devote to ending of our +small Harvard Business, small enough, but true and kindly,--the +first quiet hour I have. + +Your Copy of the Catalogue, which accompanies by Book-Post of +today, is the correctest I could manage to get done; all the +Books mentioned in it I believe to be now here (and indeed, +except five or six _tiny_ articles, have _seen_ them all, in one +or other of the three rooms where my Books now stand, and where I +believe the insignificant trifle of "tinies" to be): all these I +can expect will be punctually attended to when the time comes, +and proceeded with according to Norton's scheme and yours;--and +if any more "tinies," which I could not even remember, should +turn up (which I hardly think there will), these also will +_class_ themselves (as _Cromwelliana_ or _Fredericana_), and be +faith fully sent on with the others. For benefit of my +_Survivors_ and _Representatives_ here, I retain an exact +_Copy_ of the Catalogue now put into your keeping; so that +everything may fall out square between them and you when the +Time shall arrive. + +I mean to conform in every particular to the plan sketched out by +Norton and you,--unless, in your next Letter, you have something +other or farther to advise:--and so soon as I hear from you that +Harvard accepts my poor widow's mite of a _Bequest,_ I will +proceed to put it down in due form, and so finish this small +matter, which for long years has hovered in my thoughts as a +thing I should like to do. And so enough for this time. + +I meant to write a longish Letter, touching on many other +points,--though you see I am reduced to _pencil,_ and "write" +with such difficulty (never yet could learn to "dictate," though +my little Niece here is promptitude itself, and is so swift and +legible,--useful here as a cheerful rushlight in this now sombre +element, sombre, sad, but also beautiful and tenderly solemn more +and more, in which she bears me company, good little "Mary"!). +But, in bar of all such purposes, Publisher Chapman has come in, +with Cromwell Engravings and their hindrances, with money +accounts, &c., &c.; and has not even left me a moment of time, +were nothing else needed! + +Vol. XIV. (_Cromwell,_ I.) ought to be at Concord about as soon +as this. In our Newspapers I notice your Book announced, "half +of the Essays new,"--which I hope to get _quam primum,_ and +illuminate some evenings with,--_so_ as nothing else can, in my +present common mood. + +Adieu, dear old Friend. I am and remain yours always, + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXXI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 21 March, 1870 + +My Dear Carlyle,--On receiving your letter and catalogue I wrote +out a little history of the benefaction and carried it last +Tuesday to President Eliot at Cambridge, who was heartily +gratified, and saw everything rightly, and expressed an anxiety +(most becoming in my eyes after my odious shortcomings) that +there should be no moment of delay on our part. "The Corporation +would not meet again for a fortnight:--but he would not wait,-- +would call a special meeting this week to make the communication +to them." He did so: the meeting was held on Saturday and I +have received this (Monday) morning from him enclosed letter +and record. + +It is very amiable and noble in you to have kept this surprise +for us in your older days. Did you mean to show us that you +could not be old, but immortally young? and having kept us all +murmuring at your satires and sharp homilies, will now melt us +with this manly and heart-warming embrace? Nobody could predict +and none could better it. And you shall even go your own gait +henceforward with a blessing from us all, and a trust exceptional +and unique. I do not longer hesitate to talk to such good men as +I see of this gift, and it has in every ear a gladdening effect. +People like to see character in a gift, and from rare character +the gift is more precious. I wish it may be twice blest in +continuing to give you the comfort it will give us. + +I think I must mend myself by reclaiming my old right to send you +letters. I doubt not I shall have much to tell you, could I +overcome the hesitation to attempt a reasonable letter when one +is driven to write so many sheets of mere routine as sixty-six +(nearly sixty-seven) years enforce. I shall have to prate of my +daughters;--Edith Forbes, with her two children at Milton; Ellen +Emerson at home, herself a godsend to this house day by day; and +my son Edward studying medicine in Boston,--whom I have ever +meant and still mean to send that he may see your face when that +professional curriculum winds up. + +I manage to read a few books and look into more. Herman Grimm +sent me lately a good one, Goethe's _Unterhaltungen_ with +Muller,--which set me on Varnhagen and others. My wife sends old +regards, and her joy in this occasion. + +Yours ever, + R.W. Emerson + +P.S. Mr. Eliot took my rough counting of Volumes as correct. +When he sends me back the catalogue, I will make it exact.--I +sent you last week a little book by book-post. + + + + +CLXXXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 24 March, 1870 + +My Dear Emerson,--The day before yesterday, I heard incidentally +of an unfortunate Mail Steamer, bound for America, which had lost +its screw or some essential part of it; and so had, instead of +carrying its Letters forward to America, been drifting about like +a helpless log on the shores of Ireland till some three days ago, +when its Letters and Passengers were taken out, and actually +forwarded, thither. By industrious calculation, it appears +probable to us here that my Letter to you may have been tumbling +about in that helpless Steamer, instead of getting to Concord; +where, if so, said Letter cannot now arrive till the lingering of +it have created some astonishment there. + +I hastily write this, however, to say that a Letter was duly +forwarded a few days after yours [of January 23] arrived,-- +enclosing the _Harvard Catalogue,_ with all necessary _et +ceteras;_ indorsing all your proposals; and signifying that the +matter should be authentically completed the instant I should +hear from you again. I may add now that the thing is essentially +completed,--all signed and put on paper, or all but a word +or two, which, for form's sake, waits the actual arrival of +your Letter. + +I have never yet received your Book;* and, if it linger only a +few days more, mean to provide myself with a copy such as the +Sampson and Low people have on sale everywhere. + +I had from Norton, the other day, a very kind and friendly Letter. + +This is all of essential that I had to say. I write in utmost +haste. But am always, dear Emerson, + +Yours sincerely, + T. Carlyle + +-------- +* "Society and Solitude." +-------- + + + + +CLXXXIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 6 April, 1870 + +Dear Emerson,--The day before yesterday your welcome Letter came +to hand, with the welcome news in it; yesterday I put into my +poor Document here the few words still needed; locked everything +into its still repository (your Letter, President Eliot's, +Norton's, &c., &c.); and walked out into the sunshine, piously +thankful that a poor little whim, which had long lain fondly in +my heart, had realized itself with an emphasis I could never +hope, and was become (thanks to generous enthusiasm on New +England's part) a beautiful little fact, lying done there, so far +as I had to do with it. Truly your account of matters threw a +glow of _life_ into my thoughts which is very rare there now; +altogether a gratifying little Transaction to me,--and I must add +a surprising, for the enthusiasm of good-will is evidently great, +and the occasion is almost infinitesimally small! Well, well; +it is all finished off and completed,--(you can tell Mr. Eliot, +with many thanks from me, that I did introduce the proper style, +"President and Fellows," &c., and have forgotten nothing of what +he said, or of what he _did_);--and so we will say only, _Faustum +sit,_ as our last word on the subject;--and to me it will be, for +some days yet, under these vernal skies, something that is itself +connected with THE SPRING in a still higher sense; a little +white and red-lipped bit of _Daisy_ pure and poor, scattered into +TIME's Seedfield, and struggling above ground there, uttering +_its_ bit of prophecy withal, among the ox-hoofs and big jungles +that are everywhere about and not prophetic of much!-- + +One thing only I regret, that you _have_ spoken of the affair! +For God's sake don't; and those kindly people to whom you have,- +-swear them to silence for love of me! The poor little +_Daisy_kin will get into the Newspapers, and become the nastiest +of Cabbages:--silence, silence, I beg of you to the utmost +stretch of your power! Or is the case already irremediable? I +will hope not. Talk about such things, especially Penny Editor's +talk, is like vile coal-smoke filling your poor little world; +silence alone is azure, and has a _sky_ to it.--But, enough now. + +The "little Book" never came; and, I doubt, never will: it is a +fate that seems to await three fourths of the Books that attempt +to reach me by the American Post; owing to some _informality in +wrapping_ (I have heard);--it never gave me any notable _regret_ +till now. However, I had already bought myself an English copy, +rather gaudy little volume (probably intended for the _railways,_ +as if _it_ were a Book to be read there), but perfectly printed, +ready to be read anywhere by the open eye and earnest mind;-- +which I read here, accordingly, with great attention, clear +assent for most part, and admiring recognition. It seems to me +you are all your old self here, and something _more._ A calm +insight, piercing to the very centre; a beautiful sympathy, a +beautiful _epic_ humor; a soul peaceably irrefragable in this +loud-jangling world, of which it sees the ugliness, but _notices_ +only the huge new _opulences_ (still so anarchic); knows the +electric telegraph, with all its vulgar botherations and +impertinences, accurately for what it is, and ditto ditto the +oldest eternal Theologies of men. All this belongs to the +Highest Class of thought (you may depend upon it); and again +seemed to me as, in several respects, the one perfectly Human +Voice I had heard among my fellow-creatures for a long time. And +then the "style," the treatment and expression,--yes, it is +inimitable, best--Emersonian throughout. Such brevity, +simplicity, softness, homely grace; with such a penetrating +meaning, _soft_ enough, but irresistible, going down to the +depths and up to the heights, as _silent electricity_ goes. You +have done _very well;_ and many will know it ever better by +degrees.--Only one thing farther I will note: How you go as if +altogether on the "Over-Soul," the Ideal, the Perfect or +Universal and Eternal in this life of ours; and take so little +heed of the frightful quantities of _friction_ and perverse +impediment there everywhere are; the reflections upon which in +my own poor life made me now and then very sad, as I read you. +Ah me, ah me; what a vista it is, mournful, beautiful, +_unfathomable_ as Eternity itself, these last fifty years of Time +to me.-- + +Let me not forget to thank you for that _fourth_ page of your +Note; I should say it was almost the most interesting of all. +News from yourself at first hand; a momentary glimpse into the +actual Household at Concord, face to face, as in years of old! +True, I get vague news of you from time to time; but what are +these in comparison?--If you _will,_ at the eleventh hour, turn +over a new leaf, and write me Letters again,--but I doubt _you +won't._ And yet were it not worth while, think you? [Greek]-- +will be here _anon._--My kindest regards to your wife. Adieu, my +ever-kind Old Friend. + +Yours faithfully always, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXXIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 17 June, 1870 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Two* unanswered letters filled and fragrant and +potent with goodness will not let me procrastinate another +minute, or I shall sink and deserve to sink into my dormouse +condition. You are of the Anakim, and know nothing of the +debility and postponement of the blonde constitution. Well, +if you shame us by your reservoir inexhaustible of force, +you indemnify and cheer some of us, or one of us, by charges +of electricity. + +-------- +* One seems to be missing. +-------- + +Your letter of April came, as ever-more than ever, if possible-- +full of kindness, and making much of our small doings and +writings, and seemed to drive me to instant acknowledgment; but +the oppressive engagement of writing and reading eighteen +lectures on Philosophy to a class of graduates in the College, +and these in six successive weeks, was a task a little more +formidable in prospect and in practice than any foregoing one. +Of course, it made me a prisoner, took away all rights of +friendship, honor, and justice, and held me to such frantic +devotion to my work as must spoil that also. + +Well, it is now ended, and has no shining side but this one, that +materials are collected and a possibility shown me how a +repetition of the course next year--which is appointed--will +enable me partly out of these materials, and partly by large +rejection of these, and by large addition to them, to construct a +fair report of what I have read and thought on the subject. I +doubt the experts in Philosophy will not praise my discourses;-- +but the topics give me room for my guesses, criticism, +admirations and experiences with the accepted masters, and also +the lessons I have learned from the hidden great. I have the +fancy that a realist is a good corrector of formalism, no matter +how incapable of syllogism or continuous linked statement. To +great results of thought and morals the steps are not many, and +it is not the masters who spin the ostentatious continuity. + +I am glad to hear that the last sent book from me arrived safely. +You were too tender and generous in your first notice of it, I +fear. But with whatever deductions for your partiality, I know +well the unique value of Carlyle's praise. Many things crowd to +be said on this little paper. Though I could see no harm in the +making known the bequest of books to Cambridge,--no harm, but +sincere pleasure, and honor of the donor from all good men,--yet +on receipt of your letter touching that, I went back to President +Eliot, and told him your opinion on newspapers. He said it was +necessarily communicated to the seven persons composing the +Corporation, but otherwise he had been very cautious, and it +would not go into print. + +You are sending me a book, and Chapman's Homer it is? Are you +bound by your Arabian bounty to a largess whenever you think of +your friend? And you decry the book too. 'T-is long since I +read it, or in it, but the apotheosis of Homer, in the dedication +to Prince Henry, "Thousands of years attending," &c., is one of +my lasting inspirations. The book has not arrived yet, as the +letter always travels faster, but shall be watched and received +and announced. + +But since you are all bounty and care for me, where are the new +volumes of the Library Edition of Carlyle? I received duly, as I +wrote you in a former letter, nine Volumes,--_Sartor; Life of +Schiller;_ five Vols. of _Miscellanies; French Revolution;_ +these books oddly addressed to my name, but at _Cincinnati,_ +Massachusetts. Whether they went to Ohio, and came back to +Boston, I know not. Two volumes came later, duplicates of two +already received, and were returned at my request by Fields & Co. +with an explanation. But no following volume has come. I write +all this because you said in one letter that Mr. Chapman assured +you that every month a book was despatched to my address. + +But what do I read in our Boston Newspapers twice in the last +three days? That "Thomas Carlyle is coming to America," and the +tidings cordially greeted by the editors; though I had just +received your letter silent to any such point. Make that story +true, though it had never a verisimilitude since thirty odd years +ago, and you shall make many souls happy and perhaps show you so +many needs and opportunities for beneficent power that you cannot +be allowed to grow old or withdraw. Was I not once promised a +visit? This house entreats you earnestly and lovingly to come +and dwell in it. My wife and Ellen and Edward E. are thoroughly +acquainted with your greatness and your loveliness. And it is +but ten days of healthy sea to pass. + +So wishes heartily and affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXXV. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 28 September, 1870 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter, dated 15 June, never got to me till +about ten days ago; when my little Niece and I returned out of +Scotland, and a long, rather empty Visit there! It had missed me +here only by two or three days; and my highly _in_felicitous +Selectress of Letters to be forwarded had left _it_ carefully +aside as undeserving that honor,--good faithful old Woman, one +hopes she is greatly stronger on some sides than in this +literary-selective one. Certainly no Letter was forwarded that +had the hundredth part of the right to be so; certainly, of all +the Letters that came to me, or were left waiting here, this was, +in comparison, the one which might _not_ with propriety have been +left to lie stranded forever, or to wander on the winds forever!-- + +One of my first journeys was to Chapman, with vehement _rebuke_ +of this inconceivable "Cincinnati-Massachusetts" business. +_Stupiditas stupiditatum;_ I never in my life, not even in that +unpunctual House, fell in with anything that equaled it. Instant +amendment was at once undertaken for, nay it seems had been +already in part performed: "Ten volumes, following the nine you +already had, were despatched in Field & Co.'s box above two +months ago," so Chapman solemnly said and asseverated to me; so +that by this time you ought actually to have in hand nineteen +volumes; and the twentieth (first of _Friedrich_), which came +out ten days ago, is to go in Field & Co.'s Box this week, and +ought, not many days after the arrival of this Letter, to be in +Boston waiting for you there. The _Chapman's Homer_ (two +volumes) had gone with that first Field Packet; and would be +handed to you along with the ten volumes which were overdue. All +this was solemnly declared to me as on Affidavit; Chapman also +took extract of the Massachusetts passage in your Letter, in +order to pour it like ice-cold water on the head of his stupid +old Chief-Clerk, the instant the poor creature got back from his +rustication: alas, I am by no means certain that it will make a +new man of him, nor, in fact, that the whole of this amendatory +programme will get itself performed to equal satisfaction! But +you must write to me at once if it is not so; and done it shall +be in spite of human stupidity itself. Note, withal, these +things: Chapman sends no Books to America _except_ through Field +& Co.; he does not regularly send a Box at the middle of the +month; but he does "almost monthly send one Bog"; so that if +your monthly Volume do not start from London about the 15th, it +is due by the very _next_ Chapman-Field box; and if it at any +time don't come, I beg of you very much to make instant complaint +through Field & Co., or what would be still more effectual, +direct to myself. My malison on all Blockheadisms and torpid +stupidities and infidelities; of which this world is full!-- + +Your Letter had been anxiously enough waited for, a month before +my departure; but we will not mention the delay in presence of +what you were engaged with then. _Faustum sit;_ that truly was +and will be a Work worth doing your best upon; and I, if alive, +can promise you at least one reader that will do his best upon +your Work. I myself, often think of the Philosophies precisely +in that manner. To say truth, they do not otherwise rise in +esteem with me at all, but rather sink. The last thing I read of +that kind was a piece by Hegel, in an excellent Translation by +Stirling, right well translated, I could see, for every bit of it +was intelligible to me; but my feeling at the end of it was, +"Good Heavens, I have walked this road before many a good time; +but never with a Cannon-ball at each ankle before!" Science +also, Science falsely so called, is--But I will not enter upon +that with you just now. + +The Visit to America, alas, alas, is pure Moonshine. Never had +I, in late years, the least shadow of intention to undertake that +adventure; and I am quite at a loss to understand how the rumor +originated. One Boston Gentleman (a kind of universal +Undertaker, or Lion's Provider of Lecturers I think) informed me +that _"the Cable"_ had told him; and I had to remark, "And who +the devil told the Cable?" Alas, no, I fear I shall never dare +to undertake that big Voyage; which has so much of romance and +of reality behind it to me; _zu spat, zu spat._ I do sometimes +talk dreamily of a long Sea-Voyage, and the good the Sea has +often done me,--in times when good was still possible. It may +have been some vague folly of that kind that originated this +rumor; for rumors are like dandelion-seeds; and _the Cable_ I +dare say welcomes them all that have a guinea in their pocket. + +Thank you for blocking up that Harvard matter; provided it don't +go into the Newspapers, all is right. Thank you a thousand times +for that thrice-kind potential welcome, and flinging wide open +your doors and your hearts to me at Concord. The gleam of it is +like sunshine in a subterranean place. Ah me, Ah me! May God be +with you all, dear Emerson. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXXVI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 15 October, 1870 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I am the ignoblest of all men in my perpetual +short-comings to you. There is no example of constancy like +yours, and it always stings my stupor into temporary recovery and +wonderful resolution to accept the noble challenge. But "the +strong hours conquer us," and I am the victim of miscellany,-- +miscellany of designs, vast debility, and procrastination. + +Already many days before your letter came, Fields sent me a +package from you, which he said he had found a little late, +because they were covered up in a box of printed sheets of other +character, and this treasure was not at first discovered. They +are,--_Life of Sterling; Latter Day Pamphlets; Past and +Present; Heroes;_ 5 Vols. _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches._ +Unhappily, Vol. II. of _Cromwell_ is wanting, and there is a +duplicate of Vol. V. instead of it. Now, two days ago came your +letter, and tells me that the good old gods have also inspired +you to send me Chapman's Homer! and that it came--heroes with +heroes--in the same enchanted box. I went to Fields yesterday +and demanded the book. He ignored all,--even to the books he had +already sent me; called Osgood to council, and they agreed that +it must be that all these came in a bog of sheets of Dickens from +Chapman, which was sent to the Stereotypers at Cambridge; and +the box shall be instantly explored. We will see what tomorrow +shall find. As to the duplicates, I will say here, that I have +received two: first, the above-mentioned Vol. II. of _Cromwell;_ +and, second, long before, a second copy of _Sartor Resartus,_ +apparently instead of the Vol. I. of the _French Revolution,_ +which did not come. I proposed to Fields to send back to Chapman +these two duplicates. But he said, "No, it will cost as much as +the price of the books." I shall try to find in New York who +represents Chapman and sells these books, and put them to his +credit there, in exchange for the volumes I lack. Meantime, my +serious thanks for all these treasures go to you,--steadily good +to my youth and my age. + +Your letter was most welcome, and most in that I thought I read, +in what you say of not making the long-promised visit hither, a +little willingness to come. Think again, I pray you, of that +Ocean Voyage, which is probably the best medicine and restorative +which remains to us at your age and mine. Nine or ten days will +bring you (and commonly with unexpected comfort and easements on +the way) to Boston. Every reading person in America holds you in +exceptional regard, and will rejoice in your arrival. They have +forgotten your scarlet sins before or during the war. I have +long ceased to apologize for or explain your savage sayings about +American or other republics or publics, and am willing that +anointed men bearing with them authentic charters shall be laws +to themselves as Plato willed. Genius is but a large infusion of +Deity, and so brings a prerogative all its own. It has a right +and duty to affront and amaze men by carrying out its perceptions +defiantly, knowing well that time and fate will verify and +explain what time and fate have through them said. We must not +suggest to Michel Angelo, or Machiavel, or Rabelais, or Voltaire, +or John Brown of Osawatomie (a great man), or Carlyle, how they +shall suppress their paradoxes and check their huge gait to keep +accurate step with the procession on the street sidewalk. They +are privileged persons, and may have their own swing for me. + +I did not mean to chatter so much, but I wish you would come out +hither and read our possibilities now being daily disclosed, and +our actualities which are not nothing. I shall like to show you +my near neighbors, topographically or practically. A near +neighbor and friend, E. Rockwood Hoar, whom you saw in his youth, +is now an inestimable citizen in this State, and lately, in +President Grant's Cabinet, Attorney-General of the United States. +He lives in this town and carries it in his hand. Another is +John M. Forbes, a strictly private citizen, of great executive +ability, and noblest affections, a motive power and regulator +essential to our City, refusing all office, but impossible to +spare; and these are men whom to name the voice breaks and the +eye is wet. A multitude of young men are growing up here of high +promise, and I compare gladly the social poverty of my youth with +the power on which these draw. The Lowell race, again, in our +War yielded three or four martyrs so able and tender and true, +that James Russell Lowell cannot allude to them in verse or prose +but the public is melted anew. Well, all these know you well, +have read and will read you, yes, and will prize and use your +benefaction to the College; and I believe it would add hope, +health, and strength to you to come and see them. + +In my much writing I believe I have left the chief things unsaid. +But come! I and my house wait for you. + +Affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXXVIa. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 10 April, 1871 + +My Dear Friend,--I fear there is no pardon from you, none from +myself, for this immense new gap in our correspondence. Yet no +hour came from month to month to write a letter, since whatever +deliverance I got from one web in the last year served only to +throw me into another web as pitiless. Yet what gossamer these +tasks of mine must appear to your might! Believe that the +American climate is unmanning, or that one American whom you know +is severely taxed by Lilliput labors. The last hot summer +enfeebled me till my young people coaxed me to go with Edward to +the White Hills, and we climbed or were dragged up Agiocochook, +in August, and its sleet and snowy air nerved me again for the +time. But the booksellers, whom I had long ago urged to reprint +Plutarch's _Morals,_ claimed some forgotten promise, and set me +on reading the old patriarch again, and writing a few pages about +him, which no doubt cost me as much time and pottering as it +would cost you to write a History. Then an "Oration" was due to +the New England Society in New York, on the 250th anniversary of +the Plymouth Landing,--as I thought myself familiar with the +story, and holding also some opinions thereupon. But in the +Libraries I found alcoves full of books and documents reckoned +essential; and, at New York, after reading for an hour to the +great assembly out of my massy manuscript, I refused to print a +line until I could revise and complete my papers;--risking, of +course, the nonsense of their newspaper reporters. This pill +swallowed and forgotten, it was already time for my Second +"Course on Philosophy" at Cambridge,--which I had accepted again +that I might repair the faults of the last year. But here were +eighteen lectures, each to be read sixteen miles away from my +house, to go and come,--and the same work and journey twice in +each week,--and I have just got through the doleful ordeal. + +I have abundance of good readings and some honest writing on the +leading topics,--but in haste and confusion they are misplaced +and spoiled. I hope the ruin of no young man's soul will here or +hereafter be charged to me as having wasted his time or +confounded his reason. + +Now I come to the raid of a London bookseller, Hotten, (of whom I +believe I never told you,) on my forgotten papers in the old +_Dials,_ and other pamphlets here. Conway wrote me that he could +not be resisted,--would certainly steal good and bad,--but might +be guided in the selection. I replied that the act was odious to +me, and I promised to denounce the man and his theft to any +friends I might have in England; but if, instead of printing +then, he would wait a year, I would make my own selection, with +the addition of some later critical papers, and permit the book. +Mr. Ireland in Manchester, and Conway in London, took the affair +kindly in hand, and Hotten acceded to my change. And that is the +next task that threatens my imbecility. But now, ten days ago or +less, my friend John M. Forbes has come to me with a proposition +to carry me off to California, the Yosemite, the Mammoth trees, +and the Pacific, and, after much resistance, I have surrendered +for six weeks, and we set out tomorrow. And hence this sheet of +confession,--that I may not drag a lengthening chain. Meantime, +you have been monthly loading me with good for evil. I have just +counted twenty-three volumes of Carlyle's Library Edition, in +order on my shelves, besides two, or perhaps three, which Ellery +Channing has borrowed. Add, that the precious Chapman's _Homer_ +came safely, though not till months after you had told me of its +departure, and shall be guarded henceforward with joy. + +_Wednesday, 13, Chicago._--Arrived here and can bring this little +sheet to the post-office here. My daughter Edith Forbes, and +her husband William H. Forbes, and three other friends, accompany me, +and we shall overtake Mr. Forbes senior tomorrow at Burlington, Iowa. + +The widow of one of the noblest of our young martyrs in the War, +Col. Lowell,* cousin [nephew] of James Russell Lowell, sends me +word that she wishes me to give her a note of introduction to +you, confiding to me that she has once written a letter to you +which procured her the happiest reply from you, and I shall obey +her, and you will see her and own her rights. Still continue to +be magnanimous to your friend, + + --R.W. Emerson + +--------- +* Charles Russell Lowell, to be remembered always with honor in +company with his brother James Jackson Lowell and his cousin +William Lowell Putnam,--a shining group among the youths who have +died for their country. +--------- + + + + +CLXXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 4 June, 1871 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter gave me great pleasure. A gleam of +sunshine after a long tract of lowering weather. It is not you +that are to blame for this sad gap in our correspondence; it is +I, or rather it is my misfortunes, and miserable inabilities, +broken resolutions, etc., etc. The truth is, the winter here was +very unfriendly to me; broke ruinously into my sleep; and +through that into every other department of my businesses, +spiritual and temporal; so that from about New-Year's Day last I +have been, in a manner, good for nothing,--nor am yet, though I +do again feel as if the beautiful Summer weather might perhaps do +something for me. This it was that choked every enterprise; and +postponed your Letter, week after week, through so many months. +Let us not speak of it farther! + +Note, meanwhile, I have no disease about me; nothing but the +gradual decay of any poor digestive faculty I latterly had,--or +indeed ever had since I was three and twenty years of age. Let +us be quiet with it; accept it as a mode of exit, of which +always there must be _some_ mode. + +I have got done with all my press-correctings, editionings, and +paltry bother of that kind: Vol. 30 will embark for you about +the middle of this month; there are then to follow ("uniform," +as the printers call it, though in smaller type) a little volume +called _General Index;_ and three more volumes of _Translations +from the German;_ after which we two will reckon and count; and +if there is any _lacuna_ on the Concord shelf, at once make it +good. Enough, enough on that score. + +The Hotten who has got hold of you here is a dirty little pirate, +who snatches at everybody grown fat enough to yield him a bite +(paltry, unhanged creature); so that in fact he is a symbol to +you of your visible rise in the world here; and, with Conway's +vigilance to help, will do you good and not evil. Glad am I, in +any case, to see so much new spiritual produce still ripening +around you; and you ought to be glad, too. Pray Heaven you may +long _keep your right hand_ steady: you, too, I can perceive, +will never, any more than myself, learn to "write by dictation" +in a manner that will be supportable to you. I rejoice, also, to +hear of such a magnificent adventure as that you are now upon. +Climbing the backbone of America; looking into the Pacific Ocean +too, and the gigantic wonders going on there. I fear you won't +see Brigham Young, however? He also to me is one of the products +out there;--and indeed I may confess to you that the doings in +that region are not only of a big character, but of a great;--and +that in my occasional explosions against "Anarchy," and my +inextinguishable hatred of _it,_ I privately whisper to myself, +"Could any Friedrich Wilhelm, now, or Friedrich, or most perfect +Governor you could hope to realize, guide forward what is +America's essential task at present faster or more completely +than 'anarchic America' herself is now doing?" _Such_ "Anarchy" +has a great deal to say for itself,--(would to Heaven ours of +England had as much!)--and points towards grand _anti_-Anarchies +in the future; in fact, I can already discern in it huge +quantities of Anti-Anarchy in the "impalpable-powder" condition; +and hope, with the aid of centuries, immense things from it, in +my private mind! + +Good Mrs. --- has never yet made her appearance; but shall be +welcome whenever she does. + +Did you ever hear the name of an aged, or elderly, fantastic +fellow-citizen of yours, called J. Lee Bliss, who designates +himself O.F. and A.K., i.e. "Old Fogey" and "Amiable Kuss"? He +sent me, the other night, a wonderful miscellany of symbolical +shreds and patches; which considerably amused me; and withal +indicated good-will on the man's part; who is not without humor, +in sight, and serious intention or disposition. If you ever did +hear of him, say a word on the subject next time you write. + +And above all things _write._ The instant you get home from +California, or see this, let me hear from you what your +adventures have been and what the next are to be. Adieu, +dear Emerson. + +Yours ever affectionately, + T. Carlyle + +Mrs. --- sends a note from Piccadilly this new morning (June 5th); +_call_ to be made there today by Niece Mary, card left, etc., +etc. Promises to be an agreeable Lady. + +Did you ever hear of such a thing as this suicidal Finis of the +French "Copper Captaincy"; gratuitous Attack on Germany, and +ditto Blowing-up of Paris by its own hand! An event with +meanings unspeakable,--deep as the. _Abyss._-- + +If you ever write to C. Norton in Italy, send him my kind +remembrances. + +--T. C. (with about the velocity of Engraving--on lead!)* + +--------- +* The letter was dictated, but the postscript, from the first +signature, was written in a tremulous hand by Carlyle himself. +--------- + + + + +CLXXXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 June, 1871 + +My Dear Carlyle,--'T is more than time that you should hear from +me whose debts to you always accumulate. But my long journey to +California ended in many distractions on my return home. I found +Varioloid in my house... and I was not permitted to enter it for +many days, and could only talk with wife, son, and daughter from +the yard.... I had crowded and closed my Cambridge lectures in +haste, and went to the land of Flowers invited by John M. Forbes, +one of my most valued friends, father of my daughter Edith's +husband. With him and his family and one or two chosen guests, +the trip was made under the best conditions of safety, comfort, +and company, I measuring for the first time one entire line of +the Country. + +California surprises with a geography, climate, vegetation, +beasts, birds, fishes even, unlike ours; the land immense; the +Pacific sea; Steam brings the near neighborhood of Asia; and +South America at your feet; the mountains reaching the altitude +of Mont Blanc; the State in its six hundred miles of latitude +producing all our Northern fruits, and also the fig, orange, and +banana. But the climate chiefly surprised me. The Almanac said +April; but the day said June;--and day after day for six weeks +uninterrupted sunshine. November and December are the rainy +months. The whole Country, was covered with flowers, and all of +them unknown to us except in greenhouses. Every bird that I know +at home is represented here, but in gayer plumes. + +On the plains we saw multitudes of antelopes, hares, gophers,-- +even elks, and one pair of wolves on the plains; the grizzly +bear only in a cage. We crossed one region of the buffalo, but +only saw one captive. We found Indians at every railroad +station,--the squaws and papooses begging, and the "bucks," as +they wickedly call them, lounging. On our way out, we left the +Pacific Railroad for twenty-four hours to visit Salt Lake; +called on Brigham Young--just seventy years old--who received us +with quiet uncommitting courtesy, at first,--a strong-built, +self-possessed, sufficient man with plain manners. He took early +occasion to remark that "the one-man-power really meant all- +men's-power." Our interview was peaceable enough, and rather +mended my impression of the man; and, after our visit, I read in +the Descret newspaper his Speech to his people on the previous +Sunday. It avoided religion, but was full of Franklinian good +sense. In one point, he says: "Your fear of the Indians is +nonsense. The Indians like the white men's food. Feed them +well, and they will surely die." He is clearly a sufficient +ruler, and perhaps civilizer of his kingdom of blockheads ad +interim; but I found that the San Franciscans believe that this +exceptional power cannot survive Brigham. + +I have been surprised--but it is months ago--by a letter from +Lacy Garbett, the Architect, whom I do not know, but one of whose +books, about "Design in Architecture," I have always valued. +This letter, asking of me that Americans shall join Englishmen in +a Petition to Parliament against pulling down Ancient Saxon +buildings, is written in a way so wild as to suggest insanity, +and I have not known how to answer it. At my "Saturday Club" in +Boston I sat at dinner by an English lord,--whose name I have +forgotten,--from whom I tried to learn what laws Parliament had +passed for the repairs of old religious Foundations, that could +make them the victims of covetous Architects. But he assured me +there were none such, and that he himself was President of a +Society in his own County for the protection of such buildings. +So that I am left entirely in the dark in regard to the fact +and Garbett's letter. He claims to speak both for Ruskin +and himself. + +I grieve to hear no better account of your health than your last +letter gives. The only contradiction of it, namely, the power of +your pen in this reproduction of thirty books,--and such books,-- +is very important and very consoling to me. A great work to be +done is the best insurance, and I sleep quietly, notwithstanding +these sad bulletins,--believing that you cannot be spared. + +Fare well, dear friend, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXXIX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 4 September, 1871 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I hope you will have returned safely from the +Orkneys in time to let my son Edward W.E. see your face on his +way through London to Germany, whither he goes to finish his +medical studies,--no, not finish, but prosecute. Give him your +blessing, and tell him what he should look for in his few days in +London, and what in your Prussia. He is a good youth, and we can +spare him only for this necessity. I should like well to +accompany him as far as to your hearthstone, if only so I could +persuade you that it is but a ten-days ride for you thence to +mine,--a little farther than the Orkneys, and the outskirts of +land as good, and bigger. I read gladly in your letters some +relentings toward America,--deeper ones in your dealing with +Harvard College; and I know you could not see without interest +the immense and varied blossoming of our possibilities here,--of +all nationalities, too, besides our own. I have heard from Mrs. +--- twice lately, who exults in your kindness to her. + +Always affectionately, Yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXC. Emerson to Carlyle + +Baltimore, Md., 5 January, 1872 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I received from you through Mr. Chapman, just +before Christmas, the last rich instalment of your Library +Edition; viz. Vols. IV.-X. _Life of Friedrich;_ Vols. L-III. +_Translations from German;_ one volume General Index; eleven +volumes in all,--and now my stately collection is perfect. +Perfect too is your Victory. But I clatter my chains with joy, +as I did forty years ago, at your earliest gifts. Happy man you +should be, to whom the Heaven has allowed such masterly +completion. You shall wear your crown at the Pan-Saxon Games +with no equal or approaching competitor in sight,--well earned by +genius and exhaustive labor, and with nations for your pupils and +praisers. I count it my eminent happiness to have been so nearly +your contemporary, and your friend,--permitted to detect by its +rare light the new star almost before the Easterners had seen it, +and to have found no disappointment, but joyful confirmation +rather, in coming close to its orb. Rest, rest, now for a time; +I pray you, and be thankful. Meantime, I know well all your +perversities, and give them a wide berth. They seriously annoy a +great many worthy readers, nations of readers sometimes,--but I +heap them all as style, and read them as I read Rabelais's +gigantic humors which astonish in order to force attention, and +by and by are seen to be the rhetoric of a highly virtuous +gentleman who _swears._ I have been quite too busy with fast +succeeding _jobs_ (I may well call them), in the last year, to +have read much in these proud books; but I begin to see daylight +coming through my fogs, and I have not lost in the least my +appetite for reading,--resolve, with my old Harvard professor, +"to retire and read the Authors." + +I am impatient to deserve your grand Volumes by reading in them +with all the haughty airs that belong to seventy years which I +shall count if I live till May, 1873. Meantime I see well that +you have lost none of your power, and I wish that you would let +in some good Eckermann to dine with you day by day, and competent +to report your opinions,--for you can speak as well as you can +write, and what the world to come should know... + +Affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXCI. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 2 April, 1872 + +Dear Emerson,--I am covered with confusion, astonishment, and +shame to think of my long silence. You wrote me two beautiful +letters; none friendlier, brighter, wiser could come to me from +any quarter of the world; and I have not answered even by a +sign. Promptly and punctually my poor heart did answer; but to +do it outwardly,--as if there had lain some enchantment on me,-- +was beyond my power. The one thing I can say in excuse or +explanation is, that ever since Summer last, I have been in an +unusually dyspeptic, peaking, pining, and dispirited condition; +and have no right hand of my own for writing, nor, for several +months, had any other that was altogether agreeable to me. But +in fine I don't believe you lay any blame or anger on me at all; +and I will say no more about it, but only try to repent and do +better next time. + +Your letter from the Far West was charmingly vivid and free; one +seemed to attend you personally, and see with one's own eyes the +_notabilia,_ human and other, of those huge regions, in your +swift flight through them to and from. I retain your little +etching of Brigham Young as a bit of real likeness; I have often +thought of your transit through Chicago since poor Chicago itself +vanished out of the world on wings of fire. There is something +huge, painful, and almost appalling to me in that wild Western +World of yours;--and especially I wonder at the gold-nuggeting +there, while plainly every gold-nuggeter is no other than a +criminal to Human Society, and has to _steal_ the exact value of +his gold nugget from the pockets of all the posterity of Adam, +now and for some time to come, in this world. I conclude it is a +bait used by All-wise Providence to attract your people out +thither, there to build towns, make roads, fell forests (or plant +forests), and make ready a Dwelling-place for new Nations, who +will find themselves called to quite other than nugget-hunting. +In the hideous stew of Anarchy, in which all English Populations +present themselves to my dismal contemplation at this day, it is +a solid consolation that there will verily, in another fifty +years, be above a hundred million men and women on this Planet +who can all read Shakespeare and the English Bible and the (also +for a long time biblical and noble) history of their Mother +Country,--and proceed again to do, unless the Devil be in them, +as their Forebears did, or better, if they have the heart!-- + +Except that you are a thousand times too kind to me, your second +Letter also was altogether charming.... + +Do you read Ruskin's _Fors Clavigera,_ which he cheerily tells me +gets itself reprinted in America? If you don't, _do,_ I advise +you. Also his _Munera Pulveris,_ Oxford-_Lectures_ on Art, and +whatever else he is now writing,--if you can manage to get them +(which is difficult here, owing to the ways he has towards the +bibliopolic world!). There is nothing going on among us as +notable to me as those fierce lightning-bolts Ruskin is copiously +and desperately pouring into the black world of Anarchy all +around him. No other man in England that I meet has in him the +divine rage against iniquity, falsity, and baseness that Ruskin +has, and that every man ought to have. Unhappily he is not a +strong man; one might say a weak man rather; and has not the +least prudence of management; though if he can hold out for +another fifteen years or so, he may produce, even in this way, a +great effect. God grant it, say I. Froude is coming to you in +October. You will find him a most clear, friendly, ingenious, +solid, and excellent man; and I am very glad to find you among +those who are to take care of him when he comes to your new +Country. Do your best and wisest towards him, for my sake, +withal. He is the valuablest Friend I now have in England, +nearly though not quite altogether the one man in talking with +whom I can get any real profit or comfort. Alas, alas, here is +the end of the paper, dear Emerson; and I had still a whole +wilderness of things to say. Write to me, or even do not write, +and I will surely write again. + +I remain as ever Your Affectionate Friend, + T. Carlyle + + + +In November, 1872, Emerson went to England, and the two friends +met again. After a short stay he proceeded to the Continent and +Egypt, returning to London in the spring of 1873. For the last +time Carlyle and he saw each other. In May, Emerson returned +home. After this time no letters passed between him and Carlyle. +They were both old men. Writing had become difficult to them; +and little was left to say. + +Carlyle died, eighty-five years old, on the 5th of February, +1881. Emerson died, seventy-nine years old, on the 27th of +April, 1882. + +------------- + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle +and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II., by Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13660 *** 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..608993d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13660 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13660) diff --git a/old/13660.txt b/old/13660.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0b1252 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13660.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10189 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and +Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II., 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 II. + +Author: Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson + +Release Date: October 6, 2004 [EBook #13660] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMERSON AND CARLYLE *** + + + + + + + + + +THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THOMAS CARLYLE AND RALPH WALDO EMERSON +1834-1872 + +VOLUME II + + + +"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 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME II + +LXXVI. Emerson. Concord, 1 July, 1842. Remittance of L51.-- +Alcott.--Editorship of the _Dial._--Projected essay on Poetry.-- +Stearns Wheeler. + +LXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 19 July, 1842. Acknowledgment of +remittance.--Change of publishers.--Work on _Cromwell._-- +Sterling.--Alcott. + +LXXVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 August, 1842. Impotence of +speech.--Heart-sick for his own generation.--Transcendentalism of +the _Dial._ + +LXXIX. Emerson. Concord, 15 October, 1842. The coming book on +Cromwell.--Alcott.--The _Dial_ and its sins.--Booksellers' +accounts. + +LXXX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 November, 1842. Accounts.--Alcott.-- +Sect-founders.--Man the Reformer.--James Stephen.--Gambardella. + +LXXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 11 March, 1843. _Past and Present._-- +How to prevent pirated republication.--The _Dial._--Alcott's +English Tail. + +LXXXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 1 April, 1843. Copy of _Past and +Present_ forwarded.--Prospect of pirated edition. + +LXXXIII. Emerson. Concord, 29 April, 1843. Carlyle's star.-- +Lectures on "New England" at Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New +York.--Politics in Washington.--_Past and Present._--Effect of +cheap press in America.--Reprint of the book.--The _Dial_ does +not pay expenses. + +Extract from Emerson's Diary concerning _Past and Present._ + +LXXXIV. Carlyle. 27 August, 1843. Introduction of Mr. Macready. + +LXXXV. Emerson. Concord, 30 October, 1843. Remittance of L25.-- +Piratical reprint of _Past and Present._--E.P. Clark, a +Carlylese, to be asked to take charge of accounts.--Henry James. +--Ellery Channing's Poems. + +LXXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 31 October, 1843. Summer wanderings. +--The _Dial_ at the London Library.--Growth of Emerson's public +in England.--Piratical reprint of his Essays in London.--of +_Past and Present_ in America.--Criticism of Carlyle in the +Dial.--Dr. Russell.--Theodore Parker.--Book about Cromwell.-- +_Commons Journals._ + +LXXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 November, 1843. Receipt of L25.-- +E.P. Clark.--Henry James.--Channing's Poems.--Reverend W.H. +Channing.--"Progress of the Species."--Emerson.--The Cromwell +business. + +LXXXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 31 December, 1843. Macready.-- +Railroad to Concord.--Margaret Fuller's Review of Sterling's +Poems in the _Dial._--Remittance of L32. + +LXXXIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 31 January, 1844. Remittance received +and made.--Criticism of Emerson by Gilfillan.--John Sterling.-- +Cromwell book.--Hexameters from Voss. + +XC. Emerson. Concord, 29 February, 1844. Acknowledgment of +remittance.--A new collection of Essays.--Faith in Writers as a +class.--Remittance of L36.--Proposal concerning publication in +America of _Cromwell._ + +XCI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 April, 1844. Acknowledgment of +remittance.--Piratical reprints.--Professor Ferrier. + +XCII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 5 August, 1844. Fear for Sterling.-- +Tennyson.--Work on _Cromwell_ frightful. + +XCIII. Emerson. Concord, 1 September, 1844. Sends proof sheets +of new book of Essays.--Sterling. + +XCIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 September, 1844. Death of Sterling. + +XCV. Emerson. Concord, 30 September, 1844. Remittance of L30-- +Sterling.--Tennyson.--Regrets having troubled Carlyle about +proof-sheets.--Birth of Edward Emerson.--Purchase of land on +Walden Pond. + +XCVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 November, 1844. Thanks for +remittance.--London edition of _Essays,_ Second Series.-- +Criticism on them. + +XCVII. Emerson. Concord, 31 December, 1844. Sterling's death.-- +London edition of _Essays._--Carlyle's Preface and strictures. + +XCVIII. Emerson. Concord, 31 January, 1845. Bargain about +_Miscellanies_ with Carey and Hart.--Portrait of Carlyle +desired.--E.P. Clark's "Illustrations of Carlyle". + +XCIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 16 February, 1845. Bargain with Carey & +Co.--Portrait.--Emerson's public in England.--Work on Cromwell. + +C. Emerson. Concord, 29 June, 1845. Death of Mr. Carey.-- +Portrait.--His own occupations.--Preparing to print _Poems._-- +Lectures in prospect. + +CI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 August, 1845. _Cromwell's Letters and +Speeches_ finished.--Nature of the book.--New book from Emerson +welcome.--Imperfection of all modes of utterance.--Forbids +further plague with booksellers. + +CII. Emerson. Concord, 15 September, 1845. Payment sure from +Carey and Hart.--Lectures on "Representative Men". + +CIII. Emerson. Concord, 30 September, 1845. Congratulations on +completion of _Cromwell_ book.--Clark. + +CIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 11 November, 1845. Cromwell book sent.-- +Visit to Scotland.--Changes there.--His mother.--Impatience with +the times.--Weariness with the Cromwell book.--Visit to the +Ashburtons. + +CV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 January, 1846. Thanks to Mr. Hart, Mr. +Furness, and others.--_Cromwell proves popular.--New letters of +Cromwell. + +CVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 February, 1846. Second edition of +Cromwell.--Emerson to do what he will concerning republication.-- +Anti-Corn-Law.--Aristocracy and Millocracy. + +CVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 March, 1846. Cromwell lumber.--Sheets +of new edition sent.-Essay on Emerson in an Edinburgh Magazine.-- +Mr. Everett.--Jargon in Newspapers and Parliament. + +CVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 April, 1846. Arrangements +concerning reprint of _Cromwell._--Promise of Daguerrotype +likeness.--Fifty years old.--Rides.--Emerson's voice wholly +human.--Blessedness in work. + +CIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 30 April, 1846. Photograph sent.-- +Arrangements with Wiley and Putnam for republication of +_Cromwell_ and other books.--Photographs of Emerson and himself. +--Remembrance of Craigenputtock. + +CX. Emerson. Concord, 14 May, 1846. Daguerrotype likeness.-- +Wood-lot on Walden Pond. + +CXI. Emerson. Concord, 31 May, 1846. Photograph of Carlyle +received.--One of himself sent in return.--Bargain with Wiley +and Putnam. + +CXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 June, 1846. Bargain with Wiley and +Putnam.--Emerson's photograph expected. + +CXIII. Emerson. Concord, 15 July, 1846. Wiley and Putnam.-- +Dealings with booksellers.--Accounts.--E.P. Clark and his +Illustrations of Carlyle's Writings.--Margaret Fuller going to +Europe. + +CXIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 July, 1846. Photograph of Emerson +unsatisfactory.--Revision of his own books.--Spleen against +books.--Going to Scotland.--Reading in American history.-- +Marshall and Sparks.--Michelet.--Beriah Green. + +CXV. Emerson. Concord, 31 July, 1846. Thanks for copy of new +edition of Cromwell.--Margaret Fuller.--Desires Carlyle to see +her. + +CXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 December, 1846. Long silence.-- +Disconsolate two months in Scotland.--Visit to Ireland.--A +country cast into the melting-pot.--O'Connell.--Young Ireland.-- +Returned home sad.--Miss Fuller; estimate of her.--What she +thought of Carlyle.--Emerson's Poems. + +CXVII. Emerson. Concord, 31 January, 1847. Margaret Fuller's +visit to Chelsea.--Speculates on going to England to lecture.-- +His _Poems._ + +CXVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 March, 1847. Visit to Hampshire.-- +Emerson's _Poems._--Prospect of Emerson's Lectures in England.-- +Miss Fuller. + +CXIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 March, 1847. Remittance received.-- +Alexander Ireland.--Advice concerning lectures. + +CXX. Emerson. Concord, 30 April, 1847. Prospect of lecturing in +England.--Works in garden and orchard. + +CXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 May, 1847. Thoreau's Lecture on +Carlyle.--Visit from E.R. Hoar.--Emerson's visit to England. + +CXXII. Emerson. Concord, 4 June, 1847. Prospect of visit to +England.--F.H. Hedge. + +CXXIII. Emerson. Concord, 31 July, 1847. Visit to England +decided upon.--Portrait of Sterling. + +CXXIV. Carlyle. Rawdon, Yorkshire, 31 August, 1847. +Journeyings.--Emerson's expected visit.--Hedge.--Dr. Jacobson.-- +Quaker hosts. + +CXXV. Emerson. Concord, 30 September, 1847. Plans for England. + +CXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 15 October, 1847. Delay of Emerson's +letter announcing his coming.--Welcome to Chelsea. + +Emerson--Extracts from his Diary concerning Carlyle. + +CXXVIl. Emerson. Manchester, 5 November, 1847. His reception +and occupations. + +CXXVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 November, 1847. Messages.-- +Occupations.--Bancroft. + +CXXIX. Carlyle. Chelsea., 30 November, 1847. Messages.--Mr. +Forster, &c. + +CXXX. Emerson. Manchester, 28 December, 1847. Message from Miss +Fuller.--Hospitality shown him.--The English. + +CXXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 30 December, 1847. The Pepolis.-- +Milnes.--Tennyson.--Idleness.--Visit to Hampshire.--Massachusetts +Review. + +CXXXII. Emerson. Ambleside, 26 February, 1848. At Miss +Martineau's.--Wordsworth.--Proposed return to Chelsea. + +CXXXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 28 February, 1848. Welcome ready at +Chelsea.--His own conditions.--The new French Republic. + +CXXXIV. Emerson. Manchester, 2 March, 1848. Return to London. + +CXXXV. Emerson. [London,] 19 June, 1848. Proposed call with +Mrs. Crowe. + +CXXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 20 June, 1848. Mrs. Crowe.--Luncheon +with the Duchess. + +CXXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 23 June, 1848. Invitation to dinner. + +CXXXVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 6 December, 1848. Long silence.-- +Questions concerning Indian meal.--Death of Charles Buller, and +of Lord Ashburton's mother.--Neuberg and others. + +CXXXIX. Emerson. Boston, 23 January, 1849. John Carlyle's +translation of the Inferno.--Indian corn.--Clough's Bothie. + +CXL. Carlyle. Chelsea, 19 April, 1849. Indian corn from +Concord; trial of it, reflections upon it.--No writing at +present.--Macaulay's _History._--Political outlook.--Clough.-- +Sterling Club. + +CXLI. Carlyle. Scotsbrig, 13 August, 1849. Indian corn again.-- +Tour in Ireland.--Letter from Miss Fuller.--Message to Thoreau. + +CXLII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 19 July, 1850. A year's silence.-- +Latter Day Pamphlets.--Divergence from Emerson.--_Representative +Men._--Prescott lionized. + +CXLIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 14 November, 1850. "Eighteen million +bores."--Emerson on Latter Day Pamphlets.--Autumn Journey.-- +Disordered nerves. + +CXLIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 July, 1851. Appeal for news.--_Life +of Sterling._--Crystal Palace.--Bossu's _Journal,_ Bartram's +_Travels._--Margaret Fuller.--Mazzini.--Dr. Carlyle. + +CXLV. Emerson. Concord, 28 July, 1851. Story of the year.-- +Journey in the West.--Memoir of Margaret Fuller.--_Life of +Sterling._--English friends. + +CXLVI. Carlyle. Great Malvern, 25 August, 1851. _Life of +Sterling._--Bossu's _Journal._--Water-cure.--Twisleton.--Milnes +married.--Tennyson.--Browning on Miss Fuller. + +CXLVII. Emerson. Concord, 14 April, 1852. Browning's +Reminiscences of Margaret Fuller.--Books on the Indians.--_Life +of Sterling._ + +CXLVIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 7 May, 1852. Correspondence must be +revived.--Margaret Fuller.--Memoirs of her. + +CXLIX. Emerson. Concord, May, 1852. Relations with Carlyle.-- +Carlyle's genius and his own.--Margaret Fuller. + +CL. Carlyle. Chelsea, 25 June, 1852. Emerson and himself.-- +Reading about Frederick the Great. + +CLI. Emerson. Concord, 19 April, 1853. Excuses for not +writing.--Chapter on Fate.--Visit to the West.--Conditions of +American life.--Clough. + +CLII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 May, 1853. Blessing of letters from +Emerson.--Coming on of old age.--Modern democracy.--Visit to +Germany.--Still reading about Fritz. + +CLIIa. Emerson. Concord, 10 August, 1853. Slowness to write.-- +Regret at Clough's return to England.--Miss Bacon.--Carlyle's +visit to Germany.--Thackeray in America.--New York and its society. + +CLIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 9 September, 1853. Regrets for old +days.--Not left town.--A new top story.--Miss Bacon, her Quixotic +enterprise.--Clough.--Thackeray.--To Concord? + +CLIV. Emerson. Concord, 11 March, 1854. Laurence, the artist.-- +Reading Latter Day Pamphlets.--Death of Carlyle's, and of +Emerson's mother.--Miss Bacon.--His English Notes.--Lecturing +tour in the West.--Speed _Frederick!_ + +CLV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 April, 1854. Thankful for Emerson's +letter.--Death of his mother.--Makes no way in Prussian History. +--The insuperable difficulty with _Frederick._--Literature in +these days.--Emerson's picture of America.--Battle of Freedom and +Slavery.--Emerson's book on England desired.--Miss Bacon. + +CLVI. Emerson. Concord, 17 April, 1855. Excuses for not +writing.--Unchanged feeling for Carlyle.--The American.--True +measure of life.--Musings of indolence. + +CLVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 May, 1855. Emerson's letters +indispensable; his complete understanding of Carlyle.--A grim +and lonely year.--Never had such a business as _Frederick._-- +Frederick himself.--"Balaklava."--Persistence of the English.-- +Urges Emerson to print his book on England. + +CLVIII. Emerson. Concord, 6 May, 1856. Letter-writing.--Leaves +of Grass.--Mrs. ---. + +CLIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 20 July, 1856. Emerson's letter +welcome.--Life a burden.--Going to Scotland.--_Life of Frederick_ +to go to press.--Mrs. ---.--Miss Bacon.--Browning. + +CLX. Carlyle. The Gill, Cummertrees, Annan, 28 August, 1856. +The debt of America to Emerson.--_English Traits_ will be +welcome.--Grateful for whatever Emerson may have said of +himself.--In retreat in Annan. + +CLXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 December, 1856. Close of negotiations +for printing a complete edition of his Works in America.-- +_English Traits._--Its excellence. + +CLXII. Emerson. Concord, 17 May, 1858. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph +Longworth.--Inquires for the _Frederick._--Desires a _liber +veritatis._--Friendship of old gentlemen. + +CLXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 June, 1858. Emerson's letter and +friends welcome.--First two volumes of Frederick just ready.-- +Ugliness of the job.--Occasional tone of Emerson in the +Magazines.--Health.--Separation of Dickens from his wife. + +CLXIII.* Carlyle. Chelsea, 9 April, 1859. Copy of _Frederick_ +sent to Emerson.--Nearly choked by the job.--Self-pity.-- +Emerson's speech on Burns. + +CLXIV. Emerson. Concord, I May, 1859. Arrival of first volumes +of _Frederick._--Illusion of children.--His own children.--A +correspondent of twenty-five years not to be disused. + +Extracts from Emerson's Diary respecting the _Frederick._ + +CLXV. Emerson. Concord, 16 April, 1860. Mr. O.W. Wight's new +edition of the _Miscellanies._--Sight at Toronto of two nephews +of Carlyle.--Carlyle commended to the Gods. + +CLXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 30 April, 1860. Encouragement from +Emerson's words about _Frederick._--Message to Mr. Wight. + +CLXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 January, 1861. Emerson's _Conduct +of Life._--Still twelve months from end of his task; nearly worn +out. + +CLXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 16 April, 1861. Thanks for last +note.--_Frederick._ + +CLXIX. Emerson. Concord, 8 December, 1862. The third volume +of _Frederick._--The manner of it.--The war in America--Death +of Clough. + +CLXX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 March, 1864. Introduction of the Hon. +Lyulph Stanley.--Mrs. Carlyle's ill-health. + +CLXXI. Emerson. Concord, 26 September, 1864. Sympathy.--Fourth +volume of Frederick.--Nature of the war in America--Mr. Stanley. + +CLXXII. Carlyle. Annandale, Scotland, 14 June, 1865. Completion +of _Frederick._--Saunterings.--Stay in Annandale.--Mrs. Carlyle. +--Photographs.--Mr. M.D. Conway.--The American Peacock. + +CLXXIII. Emerson. Concord, 7 January, 1866. The last volumes of +Friedrich.--America.--Conduct of Americans in war and in peace.-- +Photographs.--Little to tell of himself. + +CLXXIV. Emerson. Concord, 16 May, 1866. Mrs. Carlyle's death. + +CLXXV. Carlyle. Mentone, 27 January, 1867. Sad interval since +last writing.--His condition.--Mrs. Carlye's death.--Solace in +writing reminiscences.--Visit in Kent during summer.--Tennyson's +_Idyls._--Emerson's _English Traits._--Mentone. + +CLXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 18 November, 1869. Long abeyance of +correspondence.--Plan of bequeathing books to New England.-- +Emerson's counsel desired.--His own condition. + +CLXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 4 January, 1870. Arrangements +respecting bequest of books to Harvard College. + +CLXXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 23 January, 1870. Apologies for +delay.--Writing new book.--Delight in proposed bequest.--Advice +concerning. + +CLXXIX. Carlyle. Melchet Court, Romsey, 14 February, 1870. +Acknowledgment of letter. + +CLXXX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 24 February, 1870. Ending of the +Harvard business. + +CLXXXI. Emerson. Concord, 21 March, 1870. Visit to President +Eliot concerning the bequest to Harvard.--Reflections on the +gift.--Speech about it to others.--Must renew correspondence.-- +His own children. + +CLXXXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 24 March, 1870. Possible delay +of his last letter.--Society and Solitude not received. + +CLXXXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 6 April, 1870. Emerson's letter +received.--Thankful for the conclusion of the little +Transaction.--Reflections on it.--Regrets that it has been spoken +of.--_Society and Solitude._--News from Concord.--The night cometh. + +CLXXXIV. Emerson. Concord, 17 June, 1870. Excuses for delay in +writing.--Lectures on Philosophy.--Steps taken to secure privacy +in regard to bequest.--Chapman's Homer.--Error in address of +books.--Report of Carlyle's coming to America. + +CLXXXV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 28 September, 1870. Delay in +receiving Emerson's last letter.--Correction of error in address +of books.--Emerson's lectures.--Philosophies.--Too late for him +to come to America. + +CLXXXVI. Emerson. Concord, 15 October, 1870. The victim of +miscellany.--Library Edition of Carlyle's Works received.-- +Invitation.--The privilege of genius.--E.R. Hoar.--J.M. Forbes.-- +The growing youth.--The Lowell race. + +CLXXXVIa. Emerson. Concord, 10 April, 1871. Account of himself +and his work.--Introduction to Plutarch's _Morals._--Oration +before the New England Society in New York.--Lectures at +Cambridge.--Reprint of early writings.--About to go to California. + +CLXXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 4 June, 1871. Gap in +correspondence.--Unfriendly winter.--Completion of Library +Edition of his Works.--Significance of piracy of Emerson.-- +Conditions in America.--Anti-Anarchy.--J. Lee Bliss.--Finis +of the Copper Captaincy. + +CLXXXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 30 June, 1871. Return from +California.--California.--The plains.--Brigham Young.--Lucy +Garbett.--Carlyle's ill-health. + +CLXXXIX. Emerson. Concord, 4 September, 1871. Introduction of +his son Edward. + +CXC. Emerson. Baltimore, 5 January, 1872. Last instalment of +Library Edition of Carlyle's Works received.--Felicitations on +this completion.--Happiness in having been Carlyle's contemporary +and friend.--Carlyle's perversities.--Proposes to "retire and +read the authors."--Carlyle's talk. + +CXCI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 April, 1872. Excuses for silence.-- +Ill-health.--Emerson's letter about the West.--Aspect and meaning +of that Western World.--Ruskin.--Froude.--Write. + +----------- + + +CORRESPONDENCE OF CARLYLE AND EMERSON + + + +LXXVI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 1 July, 1842 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I have lately received from our slow friends, +James Munroe & Co., $246 on account of their sales of the +_Miscellanies,_--and I enclose a bill of Exchange for L51, which +cost $246.50. It is a long time since I sent you any sketch of +the account itself, and indeed a long time since it was posted, +as the booksellers say; but I will find a time and a clerk also +for this. + +I have had no word from you for a long space. You wrote me a +letter from Scotland after the death of your wife's mother, and +full of pity for me also; and since, I have heard nothing. I +confide that all has gone well and prosperously with you; that +the iron Puritan is emerging from the Past, in shape and stature +as he lived; and you are recruited by sympathy and content with +your picture; and that the sure repairs of time and love and +active duty have brought peace to the orphan daughter's heart. +My friend Alcott must also have visited you before this, and you +have seen whether any relation could subsist betwixt men so +differently excellent. His wife here has heard of his arrival on +your coast,--no more. + +I submitted to what seemed a necessity of petty literary +patriotism,--I know not what else to call it,--and took charge of +our thankless little _Dial,_ here, without subscribers enough to +pay even a publisher, much less any laborer; it has no penny for +editor or contributor, nothing but abuse in the newspapers, or, +at best, silence; but it serves as a sort of portfolio, to carry +about a few poems or sentences which would otherwise be +transcribed and circulated; and always we are waiting when +somebody shall come and make it good. But I took it, as I said, +and it took me, and a great deal of good time, to a small +purpose. I am ashamed to compute how many hours and days these +chores consume for me. I had it fully in my heart to write at +large leisure in noble mornings opened by prayer or by readings +of Plato or whomsoever else is dearest to the Morning Muse, a +chapter on Poetry, for which all readings, all studies, are but +preparation; but now it is July, and my chapter is rudest +beginnings. Yet when I go out of doors in the summer night, and +see how high the stars are, I am persuaded that there is time +enough, here or somewhere, for all that I must do; and the good +world manifests very little impatience. + +Stearns Wheeler, the Cambridge tutor, a good Grecian, and the +editor, you will remember, of your American Editions, is going to +London in August probably, and on to Heidelberg, &c. He means, I +believe, to spend two years in Germany, and will come to see you +on his way; a man whose too facile and good-natured manners do +some injustice to his virtues, to his great industry and real +knowledge. He has been corresponding with your Tennyson, and +editing his Poems here. My mother, my wife, my two little girls, +are well; the youngest, Edith, is the comfort of my days. Peace +and love be with you, with you both, and all that is yours. + + --R. W. Emerson + + +In our present ignorance of Mr. Alcott's address I advised his +wife to write to your care, as he was also charged to keep you +informed of his place. You may therefore receive letters for him +with this. + + + + +LXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 19 July, 1842 + +My Dear Emerson,--Lest Opportunity again escape me, I will take +her, this time, by the forelock, and write while the matter is +still hot. You have been too long without hearing of me; far +longer, at least, than I meant. Here is a second Letter from +you, besides various intermediate Notes by the hands of Friends, +since that Templand Letter of mine: the Letter arrived +yesterday; my answer shall get under way today. + +First under the head of business let it be authenticated that the +Letter enclosed a Draft for L51; a new, unexpected munificence +out of America; which is ever and anon dropping gifts upon me,-- +to be received, as indeed they partly are, like Manna dropped out +of the sky; the gift of unseen Divinities! The last money I got +from you changed itself in the usual soft manner from dollars +into sovereigns, and was what they call "all right,"--all except +the little Bill (of Eight Pounds and odds, I think) drawn on +Fraser's Executors by Brown (Little and Brown?); which Bill the +said Executors having refused for I know not what reason, I +returned it to Brown with note of the dishonor done it, and so +the sum still stands on his Books in our favor. Fraser's people +are not now my Booksellers, except in the matter of your _Essays_ +and a second edition of _Sartor;_ the other Books I got +transferred to a certain pair of people named "Chapman and Hall, +186 Strand"; which operation, though (I understand) it was +transacted with great and vehement reluctance on the part of the +Fraser people, yet produced no _quarrel_ between them and me, and +they still forward parcels, &c., and are full of civility when I +see them:--so that whether this had any effect or none in their +treatment of Brown and his Bill I never knew; nor indeed, having +as you explained it no concern with Brown's and their affairs, +did I ever happen to inquire. I avoid all Booksellers; see them +rarely, the blockheads; study never to think of them at all. +Book-sales, reputation, profit, &c., &c.; all this at present is +really of the nature of an encumbrance to me; which I study, not +without success, to sweep almost altogether out of my head. One +good is still possible to me in Life, one only: To screw a +little more work out of myself, my miserable, despicable, yet +living, acting, and so far imperial and celestial _self;_ and +this, God knows, is difficulty enough without any foreign one! + +You ask after _Cromwell:_ ask not of him; he is like to drive +me mad. There he lies, shining clear enough to me, nay glowing, +or painfully burning; but far down; sunk under two hundred +years of Cant, Oblivion, Unbelief, and Triviality of every kind: +through all which, and to the top of all which, what mortal +industry or energy will avail to raise him! A thousand times I +have rued that my poor activity ever took that direction. The +likelihood still is that I may abandon the task undone. I have +bored through the dreariest mountains of rubbish; I have visited +Naseby Field, and how many other unintelligible fields and +places; I have &c., &c.:--alas, what a talent have I for getting +into the Impossible! Meanwhile my studies still proceed; I even +take a ghoulish kind of pleasure in raking through these old +bone-houses and burial-aisles now; I have the strangest +fellowship with that huge Genius of DEATH (universal president +there), and catch sometimes, through some chink or other, +glimpses into blessed _ulterior_ regions,--blessed, but as yet +altogether _silent._ There is no use of writing of things past, +unless they can be made in fact things present: not yesterday at +all, but simply today and what it holds of fulfilment and of +promises is _ours:_ the dead ought to bury their dead, ought +they not? In short, I am very unfortunate, and deserve your +prayers,--in a quiet kind of way! If you lose tidings of me +altogether, and never hear of me more,--consider simply that I +have gone to my natal element, that the Mud Nymphs have sucked me +in; as they have done several in their time! + +Sterling was here about the time your Letters to him came: your +American reprint of his pieces was naturally gratifying him +much.* He seems getting yearly more restless; necessitated to +find an outlet for himself, unable as yet to do it well. I think +he will now write Review articles for a while; which craft is +really, perhaps, the one he is fittest for hitherto. I love +Sterling: a radiant creature; but very restless;--incapable +either of rest or of effectual motion: aurora borealis and sheet +lightning; which if it could but _concentrate_ itself, as I +[say] always--!--We had much talk; but, on the whole, even +his talk is not much better for me than silence at present. +_Me miserum!_ + +-------- +* "The Poetical Works of John Sterling," Philadelphia, 1842. +-------- + +Directly about the time of Sterling's departure came Alcott, some +two weeks after I had heard of his arrival on these shores. He +has been twice here, at considerable length; the second time, +all night. He is a genial, innocent, simple-hearted man, of much +natural intelligence and goodness, with an air of rusticity, +veracity, and dignity withal, which in many ways appeals to one. +The good Alcott: with his long, lean face and figure, with his +gray worn temples and mild radiant eyes; all bent on saving the +world by a return to acorns and the golden age; he comes before +one like a kind of venerable Don Quixote, whom nobody can even +laugh at without loving!.... + +My poor Wife is still weak, overshadowed with sorrow: her loss +is great, the loss almost as of the widow's mite; for except her +good Mother she had almost no kindred left; and as for friends-- +they are not rife in this world.--God be thanked withal they are +not entirely non-extant! Have I not a Friend, and Friends, +though they too are in sorrow? Good be with you all. + + --T. Carlyle. + + +By far the valuablest thing that Alcott brought me was the +Newspaper report of Emerson's last Lectures in New York. Really +a right wholesome thing; radiant, fresh as the _morning;_ a +thing _worth_ reading; which accordingly I clipped from the +Newspaper, and have in a state of assiduous circulation to the +comfort of many.--I cannot bid you quit the _Dial,_ though it, +too, alas, is Antinomian somewhat! _Perge, perge,_ nevertheless. +--And so now an end. + + --T. C. + + + +LXXVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 29 August, 1842 + +My Dear. Emerson,--This, morning your new Letter, of the 15th +August, has arrived;* exactly one fortnight old: thanks to the +gods and steam-demons! I already, perhaps six weeks ago, +answered your former Letter,--acknowledging the manna-gift of the +L51, and other things; nor do I think the Letter can have been +lost, for I remember putting it into the Post-Office myself. +Today I am on the eve of an expedition into Suffolk, and full of +petty business: however, I will throw you one word, were it only +to lighten my own heart a little. You are a kind friend to me, +and a precious;--and when I mourn over the impotence of Human +Speech, and how each of us, speak or write as he will, has to +stand _dumb,_ cased up in his own unutterabilities, before his +unutterable Brother, I feel always as if Emerson were the man I +could soonest _try_ to speak with,--were I within reach of him! +Well; we must be content. A pen is a pen, and worth something; +though it expresses about as much of a _man's_ meaning perhaps as +the stamping of a hoof will express of a horse's meaning; a very +poor expression indeed! + +--------- +* This letter of 15th August is missing. +--------- + +Your bibliopolic advice about Cromwell or my next Book shall be +carefully attended, if I live ever to write another Book! But I +have again got down into primeval Night; and live alone and mute +with the _Manes,_ as you say; uncertain whether I shall ever +more see day. I am partly ashamed of myself; but cannot help +it. One of my grand difficulties I suspect to be that I cannot +write _two Books at once;_ cannot be in the seventeenth century +and in the nineteenth at one and the same moment; a feat which +excels even that of the Irishman's bird: "Nobody but a bird can +be in two places at once!" For my heart is sick and sore in +behalf of my own poor generation; nay, I feel withal as if the +one hope of help for it consisted in the possibility of new +Cromwells and new Puritans: thus do the two centuries stand +related to me, the seventeenth _worthless_ except precisely in so +far as it can be made the nineteenth; and yet let anybody try +that enterprise! Heaven help me.--I believe at least that I +ought _to hold my tongue;_ more especially at present. + +Thanks for asking me to write you a word in the _Dial._ Had such +a purpose struck me long ago, there have been many things passing +through my head,--march-marching as they ever do, in long drawn, +scandalous Falstaff-regiments (a man ashamed to be seen passing +through Coventry with such a set!)--some one of which, snatched +out of the ragged rank, and dressed and drilled a little, might +perhaps fitly have been saved from Chaos, and sent to the _Dial._ +In future we shall be on the outlook. I love your _Dial,_ and +yet it is with a kind of shudder. You seem to me in danger of +dividing yourselves from the Fact of this present Universe, in +which alone, ugly as it is, can I find any anchorage, and soaring +away after Ideas, Beliefs, Revelations, and such like,--into +perilous altitudes, as I think; beyond the curve of perpetual +frost, for one thing! I know not how to utter what impression +you give me; take the above as some stamping of the fore-hoof. +Surely I could wish you _returned_ into your own poor nineteenth +century, its follies and maladies, its blind or half-blind, but +gigantic toilings, its laughter and its tears, and trying to +evolve in some measure the hidden Godlike that lies in it;--that +seems to me the kind of feat for literary men. Alas, it is so +easy to screw one's self up into high and ever higher altitudes +of Transcendentalism, and see nothing under one but the +everlasting snows of Himmalayah, the Earth shrinking to a Planet, +and the indigo firmament sowing itself with daylight stars; easy +for _you,_ for me: but whither does it lead? I dread always, To +inanity and mere injuring of the lungs!--"Stamp, Stamp, Stamp!"-- +Well, I do believe, for one thing, a man has no right to say to +his own generation, turning quite away from it, "Be damned!" It +is the whole Past and the whole Future, this same cotton-spinning, +dollar-hunting, canting and shrieking, very wretched generation +of ours. Come back into it, I tell you;--and so for the present +will "stamp" no more.... + +Adieu, my friend; I must not add a word more. My Wife is out on +a visit; it is to bring her back that I am now setting forth for +Suffolk. I hope to see Ely too, and St. Ives, and Huntingdon, +and various _Cromwelliana._ My blessings on the Concord +Household now and always. Commend me expressly to your Wife and +your Mother. Farewell, dear friend. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXIX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 15 October, 1842 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I am in your debt for at least two letters +since I sent you any word. I should be well content to receive +one of these stringent epistles of bark and steel and mellow wine +with every day's post, but as there is no hope that more will be +sent without my writing to signify that these have come, I hereby +certify that I love you well and prize all your messages. I read +with special interest what you say of these English studies, and +I doubt not the Book is in steady progress again. We shall see +what change the changed position of the author will make in the +book. The first _History_ expected its public; the second is +written to an expecting people. The tone of the first was +proud,--to defiance; we will see if applauses have mitigated the +master's temper. This time he has a hero, and we shall have a +sort of standard to try, by the hero who fights, the hero who +writes. Well; may grand and friendly spirits assist the work in +all hours; may impulses and presences from that profound world +which makes and embraces the whole of humanity, keep your feet on +the Mount of Vision which commands the Centuries, and the book +shall be an indispensable Benefit to men, which is the surest +fame. Let me know all that can be told of your progress in it. +You shall see in the last _Dial_ a certain shadow or mask of +yours, "another Richmond," who has read your lectures and +profited thereby.* Alcott sent me the paper from London, but I +do not know the name of the writer. + +As for Alcott, you have discharged your conscience of him +manfully and knightly; I absolve you well... He is a great man +and was made for what is greatest, but I now fear that he has +already touched what best he can, and through his more than a +prophet's egotism, and the absence of all useful reconciling +talents, will bring nothing to pass, and be but a voice in the +wilderness. As you do not seem to have seen in him his pure and +noble intellect, I fear that it lies under some new and denser +clouds. + +-------- +* An article on Cromwell, in the _Dial_ for October, 1842. +-------- + +For the _Dial_ and its sins, I have no defence to set up. We +write as we can, and we know very little about it. If the +direction of these speculations is to be deplored, it is yet a +fact for literary history, that all the bright boys and girls in +New England, quite ignorant of each other, take the world so, and +come and make confession to fathers and mothers,--the boys that +they do not wish to go into trade, the girls that they do not +like morning calls and evening parties. They are all religious, +but hate the churches; they reject all the ways of living of +other men, but have none to offer in their stead. Perhaps, one +of these days, a great Yankee shall come, who will easily do the +unknown deed. + +The booksellers have sent me accounts lately, but--I know not +why--no money. Little and Brown from January to July had sold +very few books. I inquired of them concerning the bill of +exchange on Fraser's Estate, which you mention, and they said it +had not been returned to them, but only some information, as I +think, demanded by Fraser's administrator, which they had sent, +and, as they heard nothing again, they suppose that it is allowed +and paid to you. Inform me on this matter. + +Munroe & Co. allow some credits, but charge more debits for +binding, &c., and also allege few sales in the hard times. I +have got a good friend of yours, a banking man, to promise that +he will sift all the account and see if the booksellers have kept +their promises. But I have never yet got all the papers in +readiness for him. I am looking to see if I have matter for new +lectures, having left behind me last spring some half-promises in +New York. If you can remember it, tell me who writes about +Loyola and Xavier in the _Edinburgh._ Sterling's papers--if he +is near you--are all in Mr. Russell's hands.* I played my part +of Fadladeen with great rigor, and sent my results to Russell, +but have not now written to J. S. + +Yours, + R.W.E. + +---------- +* Mr. A.L. Russell, who had been instrumental in procuring the +American edition of Sterling's _Poetical Works._ +--------- + + + + +LXXX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 19 November, 1842 + +My Dear Emerson,--Your Letter finds me here today; busied with +many things, but not likely to be soon more at leisure; +wherefore I may as well give myself the pleasure of answering it +on the spot. The Fraser Bill by Brown and Little has come all +right; the Dumfries Banker apprises me lately that he has got +the cash into his hands. Pray do not pester yourself with these +Bookseller unintelligibilities: I suppose their accounts are all +reasonably correct, the cheating, such as it is, done according +to rule: what signifies it at any rate? I am no longer in any +vital want of money; alas, the want that presses far heavier on +me is a want of faculty, a want of _sense;_ and the feeling of +that renders one comparatively very indifferent to money! I +reflect many times that the wealth of the Indies, the fame of ten +Shakespeares or ten Mahomets, would at bottom do me no good at +all. Let us leave these poor slaves of the Ingot and slaves +of the Lamp to their own courses,--within a _certain_ extent +of halter! + +What you say of Alcott seems to me altogether just. He is a man +who has got into the Highest intellectual region,--if that be the +Highest (though in that too there are many stages) wherein a man +can believe and discern for himself, without need of help from +any other, and even in opposition to all others: but I consider +him entirely unlikely to accomplish anything considerable, except +some kind of crabbed, semi-perverse, though still manful +existence of his own; which indeed is no despicable thing. +His "more than prophetic egoism,"--alas, yes! It is of such +material that Thebaid Eremites, Sect-founders, and all manner of +cross-grained fanatical monstrosities have fashioned themselves, +--in very _high,_ and in the highest regions, for that matter. +Sect-founders withal are a class I do not like. No truly great +man, from Jesus Christ downwards, as I often say, ever founded a +Sect,--I mean wilfully intended founding one. What a view must a +man have of this Universe, who thinks "_he_ can swallow it all," +who is not doubly and trebly happy that he can keep it from +swallowing him! On the whole, I sometimes hope we have now done +with Fanatics and Agonistic Posture-makers in this poor world: +it will be an immense improvement on the Past; and the "New +Ideas," as Alcott calls them, will prosper greatly the better on +that account! The old gloomy Gothic Cathedrals were good; but +the great blue Dome that hangs over all is better than any +Cologne one.--On the whole, do not tell the good Alcott a word of +all this; but let him love me as he can, and live on vegetables +in peace; as I, living _partly_ on vegetables, will continue to +love him! + +The best thing Alcott did while he staid among us was to +circulate some copies of your _Man the Reformer._* I did not get +a copy; I applied for one, so soon as I knew the right fountain; +but Alcott, I think, was already gone. And now mark,--for this I +think is a novelty, if you do not already know it: Certain +Radicals have reprinted your Essay in Lancashire, and it is +freely circulating there, and here, as a cheap pamphlet, with +excellent acceptance so far as I discern. Various Newspaper +reviews of it have come athwart me: all favorable, but all too +shallow for sending to you. I myself consider it a _truly +excellent_ utterance; one of the best words you have ever +spoken. Speak many more such. And whosoever will distort them +into any "vegetable" or other crotchet,--let it be at his own +peril; for the word itself is _true;_ and will have to make +itself a _fact_ therefore; though not a distracted _abortive_ +fact, I hope! _Words_ of that kind are not born into Facts in +the _seventh month;_ well if they see the light full-grown (they +and their adjuncts) in the _second century;_ for old Time is a +most deliberate breeder!--But to speak without figure, I have +been very much delighted with the clearness, simplicity, quiet +energy and veracity of this discourse; and also with the fact of +its spontaneous appearance here among us. The prime mover of the +Printing, I find, is one Thomas Ballantyne, editor of a +Manchester Newspaper, a very good, cheery little fellow, once +a Paisley weaver as he informs me,--a great admirer of all +worthy things. + +---------- +* "A Lecture read before the Mechanics' Apprentices' Library +Association, Boston, January 25, 1841." +---------- + +My paper is so fast failing, let me tell you of the writer on +Loyola. He is a James Stephen, Head Under-Secretary of the +Colonial Office,--that is to say, I believe, real governor of the +British Colonies, so far as they have any governing. He is of +Wilberforce's creed, of Wilberforce's kin; a man past middle +age, yet still in full vigor; reckoned an enormous fellow for +"despatch of business," &c., especially by Taylor (_van +Artevelde_) and others who are with him or under him in Downing +Street.... I regard the man as standing on the confines of Genius +and Dilettantism,--a man of many really good qualities, and +excellent at the despatch of business. There we will leave +him. --A Mrs. Lee of Brookline near you has made a pleasant +Book about Jean Paul, chiefly by excerpting.* I am sorry to +find Gunderode & Co. a decided weariness!** Cromwell--Cromwell? +Do not mention such a word, if you love me! And yet--Farewell, +my Friend, tonight! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +I will apprise Sterling before long: he is at Falmouth, and +well; urging me much to start a Periodical here! + +Gambardella promises to become a real Painter; there is a glow +of real fire in the wild southern man: next to no _articulate_ +intellect or the like, but of inarticulate much, or I mistake. +He has tried to paint _me_ for you; but cannot, he says! + +--------- +* "Life of Jean Paul Frederic Richter. Compiled from various +Sources. Together with his Autobiography. Translated from the +German." In Two Volumes. Boston, 1842. This book, which is one +of the best in English concerning Jean Paul, was the work of the +late Mrs. Thomas (Eliza Buckminster) Lee. + +** In the _Dial,_ for January, 1842, is an article by Miss Fuller +on "Bettine Brentano and Gunderode,"--a decided weariness. The +Canoness Gunderode was a friend of Bettine's, older and not much +wiser than herself. +--------- + + + + +LXXXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 11 March, 1848 + +Dear Emerson,--I know not whose turn it is to write; though a +suspicion has long attended me that it was yours, and above all +an indisputable wish that you would do it: but this present is a +cursory line, all on business,--and as usual all on business of +my own. + +I have finished a Book, and just set the Printer to it; one +solid volume (rather bigger than one of the _French Revolution_ +Volumes, as I compute); it is a somewhat fiery and questionable +"Tract for the Times," _not_ by a Puseyite, which the terrible +aspect of things here has forced from me,--I know not whether as +preliminary to _Oliver_ or not; but it had gradually grown to be +the preliminary of anything possible for me: so there it is +written; and I am a very sick, but withal a comparatively very +free man. The Title of the thing is to be _Past and Present:_ +it is divided into Four Books, "Book I. Proem," "Book II. The +Ancient Monk," "Book III. The Modern Worker," and "Book IV. +Horoscope" (or some such thing):--the size of it I guessed +at above. + +The practical business, accordingly, is: How to cut out that New +York scoundrel, who fancies that because there is no gallows it +is permitted to steal? I have a distinct desire to do that;-- +altogether apart from the money to be gained thereby. A friend's +goodness ought not to be frustrated by a scoundrel destitute of +gallows.--You told me long since how to do the operation; and +here, according to the best way I had of fitting your scheme into +my materials, is my way of attempting it. + +The Book will not be out here for six good weeks from this date; +it could be kept back for a week or two longer, if that were +indispensable: but I hope it may not. In three weeks, half of +it will be printed; I, in the meanwhile, get a correct +manuscript Copy of the latter half made ready: joining the +printed sheets and this manuscript, your Bookseller will have a +three weeks' start of any rival, if I instantly despatch the +Parcel to him. Will this do? this with the announcement of the +Title as given above? Pray write to me straightway, and say. +Your answer will be here before we can publish; and the Packet +of Proof-sheets and Manuscript may go off whether there be word +from you or none.--And so enough of _Past and Present._ And +indeed enough of all things, for my haste is excessive in +these hours. + +The last _Dial_ came to me about three weeks ago _as a +Post-Letter,_ charged something like a guinea of postage, if +I remember; so it had to be rejected, and I have not yet seen +that Number; but will when my leeway is once brought up a little +again. The two preceding Numbers were, to a marked extent, more +like life than anything I had seen before of the _Dial._ There +was not indeed anything, except the Emersonian Papers alone, +which I know by the first ring of them on the tympanum of the +mind, that I properly speaking _liked;_ but there was much that +I did not dislike, and did half like; and I say, "_I fausto +pede;_ that will decidedly do better!" By the bye, it were as +well if you kept rather a strict outlook on Alcott and his +English _Tail,_--I mean so far as we here have any business with +it. Bottomless imbeciles ought not to be seen in company with +Ralph Waldo Emerson, who has already men listening to him on this +side of the water. The "Tail" has an individual or two of that +genus,--and the rest is mainly yet undecided. For example, I +knew old --- myself; and can testify, if you will believe me, +that few greater blockheads (if "blockhead" may mean "exasperated +imbecile" and the ninth part of a thinker) broke the world's +bread in his day. Have a care of such! I say always to myself, +--and to you, which you forgive me. + +Adieu, my dear Emerson. May a good Genius guide you; for you +are _alone, alone;_ and have a steep pilgrimage to make,-- +leading _high,_ if you do not slip or stumble! + +Ever your affectionate, + T. Carlyle + + + +LXXXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 1 April, 1843 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Along with this Letter there will go from +Liverpool, on the 4th instant, the promised Parcel, complete Copy +of the Book called _Past and Present,_ of which you already had +two simultaneous announcements.* The name of the Steam Packet, I +understand, is the "Britannia." I have addressed the Parcel to +the care of "Messrs. Little and Brown, Booksellers, Boston," with +your name atop: I calculate it will arrive safe enough. + +--------- +* The letter making the second announcement, being very similar +to the preceding, is omitted. +--------- + +About one hundred pages of the Manuscript Copy have proved +superfluous, the text being there also in a printed shape; I had +misestimated the Printer's velocity; I was anxious too that +there should be no failure as to time. The Manuscript is very +indifferent in that section of it; the damage therefore is +smaller: your press-corrector can acquaint himself with the +_hand,_ &c. by means of it. A poor young governess, confined to +a horizontal posture, and many sad thoughts, by a disease of the +spine, was our artist in that part of the business: her writing +is none of the distinctest; but it was a work of Charity to give +it her. I hope the thing is all as correct as I could make it. +I do not bethink me of anything farther I have to add in the way +of explanation. + +In fact, my prophecy rather is at present that the gibbetless +thief at New York, will beat us after all! Never mind if be do. +To say truth, I myself shall almost be glad: there has been a +botheration in this anxious arrangement of parts correcting of +scrawly manuscript copies of what you never wished to read more, +and insane terror withal of having your own Manuscript burnt or +lost,--that has exceeded my computation. Not to speak of this +trouble in which I involve you, my Friend; which, I truly +declare, makes me ashamed! True one _is_ bound to resist the +Devil in all shapes; if a man come to steal from you, you will +put on what locks and padlocks are at hand, and not on the whole +say, "Steal, then!" But if the locks prove insufficient, and the +thief do break through,--that side of the alternative also will +suit you very well; and, with perhaps a faint prayer for gibbets +when they are necessary, you will say to him, next time, "_Macte +virtute,_ my man." + +All is in a whirl with me here today; no other topic but this +very poor one can be entered upon. I hope for a letter from your +own hand soon, and some news about still more interesting matters. + +Adieu, my Friend; I feel still as if, in several senses, you +stood alone with me under the sky at present!* + +----------- +* The signature to this letter has been cut off. +----------- + + + + +LXXXIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 29 April, 1843 + +My Dear Carlyle,--It is a pleasure to set your name once more at +the head of a sheet. It signifies how much gladness, how much +wealth of being, that the good, wise, man-cheering, man-helping +friend, though unseen, lives there yonder, just out of sight. +Your star burns there just below our eastern horizon, and fills +the lower and upper air with splendid and splendescent auroras. +By some refraction which new lenses or else steamships shall +operate, shall I not yet one day see again the disk of benign +Phosphorus? It is a solid joy to me, that whilst you work for +all, you work for me and with me, even if I have little to write, +and seldom write your name. + +Since I last wrote to you, I found it needful, if only for the +household's sake, to set some new lectures in order, and go to +new congregations of men. I live so much alone, shrinking almost +cowardly from the contact of worldly and public men, that I need +more than others to quit home sometimes, and roll with the river +of travelers, and live in hotels. I went to Baltimore, where I +had an invitation, and read two lectures on New England. On my +return, I stopped at Philadelphia, and, my Course being now grown +to four lectures, read them there. At New York, my snowball was +larger, and I read five lectures on New England. 1. Religion; +2. Trade; 3. Genius, Manners and Customs; 4. Recent literary +and spiritual influences from abroad; 5. Domestic spiritual +history.--Perhaps I have not quite done with them yet, but may +make them the block of a new and somewhat larger structure for +Boston, next winter. The newspaper reports of them in New York +were such offensive misstatements, that I could not send you, as +I wished, a sketch. Between my two speeches at Baltimore, I went +to Washington, thirty-seven miles, and spent four days. The two +poles of an enormous political battery, galvanic coil on coil, +self-increased by series on series of plates from Mexico to +Canada, and from the sea westward to the Rocky Mountains, here +meet and play, and make the air electric and violent. Yet one +feels how little, more than how much, man is represented there. +I think, in the higher societies of the Universe, it will turn +out that the angels are molecules, as the devils were always +Titans, since the dulness of the world needs such mountainous +demonstration, and the virtue is so modest and concentrating. + +But I must not delay to acknowledge the arrival of your Book. It +came ten or eleven days ago, in the "Britannia," with the three +letters of different dates announcing it.--I have read the +superfluous hundred pages of manuscript, and find it only too +popular. Beside its abundance of brilliant points and proverbs, +there is a deep, steady tide taking in, either by hope or by +fear, all the great classes of society,--and the philosophic +minority also, by the powerful lights which are shed on the +phenomenon. It is true contemporary history, which other books +are not, and you have fairly set solid London city aloft, afloat +in bright mirage in the air. I quarrel only with the popular +assumption, which is perhaps a condition of the Humor itself, +that the state of society is a new state, and was not the same +thing in the days of Rabelais and of Aristophanes, as of Carlyle. +Orators always allow something to masses, out of love to their +own art, whilst austere philosophy will only know the particles. +This were of no importance, if the historian did not so come to +mix himself in some manner with his erring and grieving nations, +and so saddens the picture; for health is always private and +original, and its essence is in its unmixableness.--But this +Book, with all its affluence of wit, of insight, and of daring +hints, is born for a longevity which I will not now compute.--In +one respect, as I hinted above, it is only too good, so sure of +success, I mean, that you are no longer secure of any respect to +your property in our freebooting America. + +You must know that the cheap press has, within a few months, made +a total change in our book markets. Every English book of any +name or credit is instantly converted into a newspaper or coarse +pamphlet, and hawked by a hundred boys in the streets of all of +our cities for 25, 18, or 12 cents; Dickens's Notes for 12 +cents, _Blackwood's Magazine_ for 18 cents, and so on. Three or +four great New York and Philadelphia printing-houses do this +work, with hot competition. One prints Bulwer's novel yesterday, +for 35 cents; and already, in twenty-four hours, another has a +coarser edition of it for 18 cents, in all thoroughfares.--What +to do with my sealed parcel of manuscripts and proofs? No +bookseller would in these perilous circumstances offer a dollar +for my precious parcel. I inquired of the lawyers whether I +could not by a copyright protect my edition from piracy until an +English copy arrived, and so secure a sale of a few weeks. They +said, no; yet advised the taking a certificate of copyright, +that we might try the case if we wished. After much consulting +and balancing for a few hours, I decided to print, as heretofore, +on our own account, an edition, but cheap, to make the temptation +less, to retail at seventy-five cents. I print fifteen hundred +copies, and announce to the public that it is your edition, and +all good men must buy this. I have written to the great +Reprinters, namely to Park Benjamin, and to the Harpers, of New +York, to request their forbearance; and have engaged Little and +Brown to publish, because, I think, they have something more of +weight with Booksellers, and are a little less likely to be +invaded than Munroe. If we sell a thousand copies at seventy-five +cents, it will only yield you about two hundred dollars; if we +should be invaded, we can then afford to sell the other five +hundred copies at twenty-five cents, without loss. In thus +doing, I involve you in some risk; but it was the best course +that occurred.--Hitherto, the _Miscellanies_ have not been +reprinted in the cheap forms; and in the last year, James Munroe +& Co. have sold few copies; all books but the cheapest being +unsold in the hard times; something has however accrued to your +credit there. J.M. & Co. fear that, if the new book is pirated +at New York and the pirate prospers, instantly the _Miscellanies_ +will be plundered. We will hope better, or at least exult +in that which remains, to wit, a Worth unplunderable, yet +infinitely communicable. + +I have hardly space left to say what I would concerning the +_Dial._ I heartily hoped I had done with it, when lately our +poor, good, publishing Miss Peabody,... wrote me that its +subscription would not pay its expenses (we all writing for +love). But certain friends are very unwilling it should die, and +I a little unwilling, though very unwilling to be the life of it, +as editor. And now that you are safely through your book, and +before the greater Sequel rushes to its conclusion, send me, I +pray you, that short chapter which hovers yet in the limbo of +contingency, in solid letters and points. Let it be, if that is +readiest, a criticism on the _Dial,_ and this too Elysian race, +not blood, and yet not ichor.--Let Jane Carlyle be on my part, +and, watchful of his hours, urge the poet in the golden one. I +think to send you a duplicate of the last number of the _Dial_ by +Mr. Mann,* who with his bride (sister of the above-mentioned Miss +Peabody) is going to London and so to Prussia. He is little +known to me, but greatly valued as a philanthropist in this +State. I must go to work a little more methodically this summer, +and let something grow to a tree in my wide straggling shrubbery. +With your letters came a letter from Sterling, who was too noble +to allude to his books and manuscript sent hither, and which +Russell all this time has delayed to print; I know not why, but +discouraged, I suppose, in these times by booksellers. I must +know precisely, and write presently to J.S. + +Farewell. + R.W. Emerson** + +----------- +* The late Horace Mann. + +** The following passages from Emerson's Diary relating to _Past +and Present_ seem to have been written a few days after the +preceding letter:--"How many things this book of Carlyle gives us +to think! It is a brave grappling with the problem of the times, +no luxurious holding aloof, as is the custom of men of letters, +who are usually bachelors and not husbands in the state, but +Literature here has thrown off his gown and descended into the +open lists. The gods are come among us in the likeness of men. +An honest Iliad of English woes. Who is he that can trust +himself in the fray? Only such as cannot be familiarized, but +nearest seen and touched is not seen and touched, but remains +inviolate, inaccessible, because a higher interest, the politics +of a higher sphere, bring him here and environ him, as the +Ambassador carries his country with him. Love protects him from +profanation. What a book this in its relation to English +privileged estates! How shall Queen Victoria read this? how the +Primate and Bishops of England? how the Lords? how the Colleges? +how the rich? and how the poor? Here is a book as full of +treason as an egg is full of meat, and every lord and lordship +and high form and ceremony of English conservatism tossed like a +football into the air, and kept in the air with merciless +rebounds and kicks, and yet not a word in the book is punishable +by statute. The wit has eluded all official zeal, and yet these +dire jokes, these cunning thrusts,--this flaming sword of +cherubim waved high in air illuminates the whole horizon and +shows to the eyes of the Universe every wound it inflicts. Worst +of all for the party attacked, it bereaves them beforehand of +all sympathy by anticipating the plea of poetic and humane +conservation and impressing the reader with the conviction that +Carlyle himself has the truest love for everything old and +excellent, and a genuine respect for the basis of truth in those +whom he exposes. Gulliver among the Lilliputians... + +"Carlyle must write thus or nohow, like a drunken man who can +run, but cannot walk. What a man's book is that! no prudences, +no compromises, but a thorough independence. A masterly +criticism on the times. Fault perhaps the excess of importance +given to the circumstance of today. The poet is here for this, +to dwarf and destroy all merely temporary circumstance, and to +glorify the perpetual circumstance of men, e.g. dwarf British +Debt and raise Nature and social life. + +"But everything must be done well once; even bulletins and +almanacs must have one excellent and immortal bulletin and +almanac. So let Carlyle's be the immortal newspaper." +---------- + + + + +LXXXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +27 August, 1843 + +Dear Emerson,--The bearer of this is Mr. Macready, our celebrated +Actor, now on a journey to America, who wishes to know you. In +the pauses of a feverish occupation which he strives honestly to +make a noble one, this Artist, become once more a man, would like +well to meet here and there a true American man. He loves Heroes +as few do; and can recognize them, you will find, whether they +have on the _Cothurnus_ or not. I recommend him to you; bid +you forward him as you have opportunity, in this department of +his pilgrimage. + +Mr. Macready's deserts to the English Drama are notable here to +all the world; but his dignified, generous, and every-way +honorable deportment in private life is known fully, I believe, +only to a few friends. I have often said, looking at him as a +manager of great London theatres, "This Man, presiding over the +unstablest, most chaotic province of English things, is the one +public man among us who has dared to take his stand on what he +understood to be _the truth,_ and expect victory from that: he +puts to shame our Bishops and Archbishops." It is literally so. + +With continued kind wishes, yours as of old. + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 October, 1843 + +My Dear Friend,--I seize the occasion of having this morsel of +paper for twenty-five pounds sterling from the booksellers to +send you, (and which fail not to find enclosed, as clerks say,) +to inquire whether you still exist in Chelsea, London, and what +is the reason that my generous correspondent has become dumb for +weary months. I must go far back to resume my thread. I think +in April last I received your Manuscript, &c. of the Book, which +I forthwith proceeded to print, after some perplexing debate with +the booksellers, as I fully informed you in my letter of April or +beginning of May. Since that time I have had no line or word +from you. I must think that my letter did not reach you, or that +you have written what has never come to me. I assure myself that +no harm has befallen you, not only because you do not live in a +corner, and what chances in your dwelling will come at least +to my ears, but because I have read with great pleasure the +story of Dr. Francia,* which gave the best report of your health +and vivacity. + +---------- +* Carlyle's article on Dr. Francia in the _Foreign Quarterly +Review,_ No. 62. Reprinted in his _Miscellanies._ +---------- + +I wrote you in April or May an account of the new state of things +which the cheap press has wrought in our book market, and +specially what difficulties it put in the way of our edition of +_Past and Present._ For a few weeks I believed that the letters +I had written to the principal New York and Philadelphia +booksellers, and the Preface, had succeeded in repelling the +pirates. But in the fourth or fifth week appeared a mean edition +in New York, published by one Collyer (an unknown person and +supposed to be a mask of some other bookseller), sold for twelve +and one half cents, and of this wretched copy several thousands +were sold, whilst our seventy-five cents edition went off slower. +There was no remedy, and we must be content that there was no +expense from our edition, which before September had paid all its +cost, and since that time has been earning a little, I believe. +I am not fairly entitled to an account of the book from the +publishers until the 1st of January.... I have never yet done +what I have thought this other last week seriously to do, namely, +to charge the good and faithful E.P. Clark, a man of accounts as +he is a cashier in a bank, with the total auditing and analyzing +of these accounts of yours. My hesitation has grown from the +imperfect materials which I have to offer him to make up so long +a story. But he is a good man, and, do you know it? a Carlylese +of that intensity that I have often heard he has collected a sort +of album of several volumes, containing illustrations of every +kind, historical, critical, &c., to the _Sartor._ I must go to +Boston and challenge him. Once when I asked him, he seemed +willing to assume it. No more of accounts tonight. + +I send you by this ship a volume of translations from Dante, by +Doctor Parsons of Boston, a practising dentist and the son of a +dentist. It is his gift to you. Lately went Henry James to +you with a letter from me. He is a fine companion from his +intelligence, valor, and worth, and is and has been a very +beneficent person as I learn. He carried a volume of poems from +my friend and nearest neighbor, W. Ellery Channing, whereof give +me, I pray you, the best opinion you can. I am determined he +shall be a poet, and you must find him such.* I have too many +things to tell you to begin at the end of this sheet, which after +all this waiting I have been compelled to scribble in a corner, +with company waiting for me. Send me instant word of yourself +if you love me, and of those whom you love, and so God keep you +and yours. + + --R. Waldo Emerson + +---------- +* In the second number of the _Dial,_ in October, 1840, Emerson +had published, under the title of "New Poetry," an article warmly +commending Mr. Channing's then unpublished poems. +---------- + + + + +LXXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 31 October, 1843 + +My Dear Emerson,--It is a long weary time since I have had the +satisfaction of the smallest dialogue with you. The blame is all +my own; the reasons would be difficult to give,--alas, they are +properly no-reasons, children not of _Something,_ but of mere +Idleness, Confusion, Inaction, Inarticulation, of _Nothing_ in +short! Let us leave them there, and profit by the hour which +yet is. + +I ran away from London into Bristol and, South Wales, when the +heats grew violent, at the end of June. South Wales, North +Wales, Lancashire, Scotland: I roved about everywhere seeking +some Jacob's-pillow on which to lay my head, and dream of things +heavenly;--yes, that at bottom was my modest prayer, though I +disguised it from myself and the result was, I could find no +pillow at all; but sank into ever meaner restlessness, blacker +and blacker biliary gloom, and returned in the beginning of +September thoroughly eclipsed and worn out, probably the weariest +of all men living under the sky. Sure enough I have a fatal +talent of converting all Nature into Preternaturalism for myself: +a truly horrible Phantasm-Reality it is to me; what of heavenly +radiances it has, blended in close neighborhood, in intimate +union, with the hideousness of Death and Chaos;--a very ghastly +business indeed! On the whole, it is better to hold one's peace +about it. I flung myself down on sofas here,--for my little Wife +had trimmed up our little dwelling-place into quite glorious +order in my absence, and I had only to lie down: there, in +reading books, and other make-believe employments, I could at +least keep silence, which was an infinite relief. Nay, +gradually, as indeed I anticipated, the black vortexes and +deluges have subsided; and now that it is past, I begin to feel +myself better for my travels after all. For one thing, +articulate speech having returned to me,--you see what use I make +of it. + +On the table of the London Library, voted in by some unknown +benefactor whom I found afterwards to be Richard Milnes, there +lay one thing highly gratifying to me: the last two Numbers of +the _Dial._ It is to be one of our Periodicals henceforth; the +current Number lies on the Table till the next arrive; then the +former goes to the Binder; we have already, in a bound volume, +all of it that Emerson has had the editing of. This is right. +Nay, in Edinburgh, and indeed wherever ingenuous inquisitive +minds were met with, I have to report that the said Emerson could +number a select and most loving public; select, and I should say +fast growing: for good and indifferent reasons it may behove the +man to assure himself of this. Farther, to the horror of poor +Nickerson (Bookseller Fraser's Successor), a certain scoundrel +interloper here has reprinted _Emerson's Essays_ on grayish +paper, to be sold at two shillings,--distracting Nickerson with +the fear of change! I was glad at this, if also angry: it +indicates several things. Nickerson has taken his measures, will +reduce the price of his remaining copies; indeed, he informs me +the best part of his edition was already sold, and he has even +some color of money due from England to Emerson through me! With +pride enough will I transmit this mournful, noble peculium: and +after that, as I perceive, such chivalrous international doings +must cease between us. _Past and Present,_ some one told me, +was, in spite of all your precautions, straightway sent forth in +modest gray, and your benevolent speculation ruined. Here too, +you see, it is the same. Such chivalries, therefore, are now +impossible; for myself I say, "Well, let them cease; thank God +they once were, the Memory of that can never cease with us!" + +In this last Number of the _Dial_ which by the bye your +Bookseller never forwarded to me, I found one little Essay, a +criticism on myself,* which, if it should do me mischief, may the +gods forgive you for! It is considerably the most dangerous +thing I have read for some years. A decided likeness of myself +recognizable in it, as in the celestial mirror of a friend's +heart; but so enlarged, exaggerated, all _transfigured,_--the +most delicious, the most dangerous thing! Well, I suppose I must +try to assimilate it also, to turn it also to good, if I be able. +Eulogies, dyslogies, in which one finds no features of one's own +natural face, are easily dealt with; easily left unread, as +stuff for lighting fires, such is the insipidity, the wearisome +_non_entity of pabulum like that: but here is another sort of +matter! "The beautifulest piece of criticism I have read for +many a day," says every one that speaks of it. May the gods +forgive you!--I have purchased a copy for three shillings, and +sent it to my Mother: one of the _indubitablest_ benefits I +could think of in regard to it. + +--------- +* A criticism by Emerson of _Past and Present,_ in the _Dial_ +for July, 1843. It embodies a great part of the extract +from Emerson's Diary given in a preceding note, and is well +worth reading in full for its appreciation of Carlyle's powers +and defects. +--------- + +There have been two friends of yours here in these very days: +Dr. Russell, just returning from Paris; Mr. Parker, just bound +thither.* We have seen them rather oftener than common, Sterling +being in town withal. They are the best figures of strangers we +have had for a long time; possessions, both of them, to fall in +with in this pilgrimage of life. Russell carries friendliness in +his eyes, a most courteous, modest, intelligent man; an English +intelligence too, as I read, the best of it lying unspoken, not +as a logic but as an instinct. Parker is a most hardy, compact, +clever little fellow, full of decisive utterance, with humor and +good humor; whom I like much. They shine like suns, these two, +amid multitudes of watery comets and tenebrific constellations, +too sorrowful without such admixture on occasion! + +------------ +* Dr. Le Baron Russell; Theodore Parker. +------------ + +As for myself, dear Emerson, you must ask me no questions till-- +alas, till I know not when! After four weary years of the most +unreadable reading, the painfulest poking and delving, I have +come at last to the conclusion--that I must write a Book on +Cromwell; that there is no rest for me till I do it. This point +fixed, another is not less fixed hitherto, That a Book on +Cromwell is _impossible._ Literally so: you would weep for me +if you saw how, between these two adamantine certainties, I am +whirled and tumbled. God only knows what will become of me in +the business. Patience, Patience! + +By the bye, do you know a "Massachusetts Historical Society," and +a James Bowdoin, seemingly of Boston? In "Vol. II. third series" +of their _Collections,_ lately I met with a disappointment almost +ludicrous. Bowdoin, in a kind of dancing, embarrassed style, +gives long-winded, painfully minute account of certain precious +volumes, containing "Notes of the Long Parliament," which now +stand in the New York Library; poises them in his assaying +balance, speculates, prophesies, inquires concerning them: to me +it was like news of the lost Decades of Livy. Good Heavens, it +soon became manifest that these precious Volumes are nothing +whatever but a wretched broken old dead manuscript copy of part +of our printed _Commons Journals!_ printed since 1745, and known +to all barbers! If the Historical Society desired it, any Member +of Parliament could procure them the whole stock, _Lords and +Commons,_ a wheelbarrowful or more, with no cost but the +carriage. Every Member has the right to demand a copy, and few +do it, few will let such a mass cross their door-threshold! This +of Bowdoin's is a platitude of some magnitude.--Adieu, dear +Emerson. Rest not, haste not; you have work to do. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 17 November, 1843 + +Dear Emerson,--About this time probably you will be reading a +Letter I hurried off for you by Dr. Russell in the last steamer; +and your friendly anxieties will partly be set at rest. Had I +kept silence so very long? I knew it was a long while; but my +vague remorse had kept no date! It behoves me now to write again +without delay; to certify with all distinctness that I have +safely received your Letter of the 30th October, safely the Bill +for L25 it contained;--that you are a brave, friendly man, of +most serene, beneficient way of life; and that I--God help me!-- + +By all means appoint this Mr. Clark to the honorary office of +Account-keeper--if he will accept it! By Parker's list of +questions from him, and by earlier reminiscences recalled on that +occasion, I can discern that he is a man of lynx eyesight, of an +all-investigating curiosity: if he will accept this sublime +appointment, it will be the clearest case of elective affinity. +Accounts to you must be horrible; as they are to me: indeed, I +seldom read beyond the _last_ line of them, if I can find the +last; and one of the insupportabilities of Bookseller Accounts +is that nobody but a wizard, or regular adept in such matters, +can tell where the last line, and final net result of the whole +accursed babblement, is to be found! By all means solicit +Clark;--at all events, do you give it up, I pray you, and let the +Booksellers do their own wise way. It really is not material; +let the poor fellows have length of halter. Every new Bill from +America comes to me like a kind of heavenly miracle; a reaping +where I never sowed, and did not expect to reap: the quantity of +it is a thing I can never bring in question.--For your English +account with Nickerson I can yet say nothing more; perhaps about +Newyear's-day the poor man will enable me to say something. I +hear however that the Pirate has sold off, or nearly so, his +Two-shillings edition of the _Essays,_ and is preparing to print +another; this, directly in the teeth of Cash and double-entry +book-keeping, I take to be good news. + +James is a very good fellow, better and better as we see him +more. Something shy and skittish in the man; but a brave +heart intrinsically, with sound, earnest sense, with plenty +of insight and even humor. He confirms an observation of mine, +which indeed I find is hundreds of years old, that a stammering +man is never a worthless one. Physiology can tell you why. It +is an excess of delicacy, excess of sensibility to the presence +of his fellow-creature, that makes him stammer. Hammond l'Estrange +says, "Who ever heard of a stammering man that was a fool?" Really +there is something in that.--James is now off to the Isle of Wight; +will see Sterling at Ventnor there; see whether such an Isle or +France will suit better for a winter residence. + +W.E. Channing's _Poems_ are also a kind gift from you. I have +read the pieces _you had cut up for me:_ worthy indeed of +reading! That Poem _on Death_ is the utterance of a valiant, +noble heart, which in rhyme or prose I shall expect more news of +by and by. But at bottom "Poetry" is a most suspicious affair +for me at present! You cannot fancy the oceans of Twaddle that +human Creatures emit upon me, in these times; as if, when the +lines had a jingle in them, a Nothing could be Something, and the +point were gained! It is becoming a horror to me,--as all speech +without meaning more and more is. I said to Richard Milnes, "Now +in honesty what is the use of putting your accusative _before_ +the verb, and otherwise entangling the syntax; if there really +is an image of any object, thought, or thing within you, for +God's sake let me have it the _shortest_ way, and I will so +cheerfully excuse the _omission_ of the jingle at the end: +cannot I do without that!"--Milnes answered, "Ah, my dear fellow, +it is because we have no thought, or almost none; a little +thought goes a great way when you put it into rhyme!" Let a man +try to the very uttermost to _speak_ what he means, before +_singing_ is had recourse to. Singing, in our curt English +speech, contrived expressly and almost exclusively for "despatch +of business," is terribly difficult. Alfred Tennyson, alone of +our time, has proved it to be possible in some measure. If +Channing will persist in melting such obdurate speech into music +he shall have my true wishes,--my augury that it will take an +enormous _heat_ from him!--Another Channing,* whom I once saw +here, sends me a Progress-of-the-Species Periodical from New +York. _Ach Gott!_ These people and their affairs seem all +"melting" rapidly enough, into thaw-slush or one knows not what. +Considerable madness is visible in them. _Stare super antiquas +vias:_ "No," they say, "we cannot stand, or walk, or do any good +whatever there; by God's blessing, we will fly,--will not you!-- +here goes!" And their _flight,_ it is as the flight of the +unwinged,--of oxen endeavoring to fly with the "wings" of an ox! +By such flying, universally practised, the "ancient ways" are +really like to become very deep before long. In short, I am +terribly sick of all that;--and wish it would stay at home at +Fruitland, or where there is good pasture for it. Friend +Emerson, alone of all voices, out of America, has sphere-music in +him for me,--alone of them all hitherto; and is a prophecy and +sure dayspring in the East; immeasurably cheering to me. God +long prosper him; keep him duly apart from that bottomless +hubbub which is not, at all cheering! And so ends my Litany for +this day. + +-------- +* The Reverend William Henry Channing. +-------- + +The Cromwell business, though I punch daily at it with all manner +of levers, remains immovable as Ailsa Crag. Heaven alone knows +what I shall do with it. I see and say to myself, It is +heroical; Troy Town was probably not a more heroic business; +and this belongs to thee, to thy own people,--must it be dead +forever?--Perhaps yes,--and kill me too into the bargain. Really +I think it very shocking that we run to Greece, to Italy, to &c., +&c., and leave all at home lying buried as a nonentity. Were I +absolute Sovereign and Chief Pontiff here, there should be a +study of the Old _English_ ages first of all. I will pit Odin +against any Jupiter of them; find Sea-kings that would have +given Jason a Roland for his Oliver! We are, as you sometimes +say, a book-ridden people,--a phantom-ridden people.--All this +small household is well; salutes you and yours with love old and +new. Accept this hasty messenger; accept my friendliest +farewell, dear Emerson. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +LXXXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 December, 1843 + +My Dear Friend,--I have had two good letters from you, and it is +fully my turn to write, so you shall have a token on this latest +day of the year. I rejoice in this good will you bear to so many +friends of mine,--if they will go to you, you must thank +yourself. Best when you are mutually contented. I wished lately +I might serve Mr. Macready, who sent me your letter.--I called on +him and introduced him to Sam G. Ward, my friend and the best man +in the city, and, besides all his personal merits, a master of +all the offices of hospitality. Ward was to keep himself +informed of Macready's times, and bring me to him when there was +opportunity. But he stayed but a few days in Boston, and, Ward +said, was in very good hands, and promised to see us when he +returns by and by. I saw him in Hamlet, but should much prefer +to see him as Macready. + +I must try to entice Mr. Macready out here into my pines and +alder bushes. Just now the moon is shining on snow-drifts, four, +five, and six feet high, but, before his return, they will melt; +and already this my not native but ancestral village, which I +came to live in nearly ten years ago because it was the quietest +of farming towns, and off the road, is found to lie on the +directest line of road from Boston to Montreal, a railroad is +a-building through our secretest woodlands, and, tomorrow morning, +our people go to Boston in two hours instead of three, and, next +June, in one. This petty revolution in our country matters was +very odious to me when it began, but it is hard to resist the joy +of all one's neighbors, and I must be contented to be carted like +a chattel in the cars and be glad to see the forest fall. This +rushing on your journey is plainly a capital invention for our +spacious America, but it is more dignified and man-like to walk +barefoot.--But do you not see that we are getting to be +neighbors? a day from London to Liverpool; twelve or eleven to +Boston; and an hour to Concord; and you have owed me a visit +these ten years. + +I mean to send with your January _Dial_ a copy of the number for +Sterling, as it contains a review of his tragedy and poems, by +Margaret Fuller. I have not yet seen the article, and the lady +affirms that it is very bad, as she was ill all the time she was +writing; but I hope and believe better. She, Margaret Fuller, +is an admirable person, whose writing gives feeble account of +her. But I was to say that I shall send this _Dial_ for J.S. to +your care, as I know not the way to the Isle of Wight. + +Enclosed in this letter I send a bill of exchange for L32 8s. 2d. +payable by Baring & Co. It happens to represent an exact balance +on Munroe's books, and that slow mortal should have paid it +before. I have not yet got to Clark, I who am a slow mortal, but +have my eye fixed on him. Remember me and mine with kindest +salutations to your wife and brother. + +Ever yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +LXXXIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 31 January, 1844 + +Dear Emerson, Some ten days ago came your Letter with a new Draft +of L32 and odd money in it: all safe; the Draft now gone into +the City to ripen into gold and silver, the Letter to be +acknowledged by some hasty response now and here. America, I say +to myself looking at these money drafts, is a strange place; the +highest comes out of it and the lowest! Sydney Smith is singing +dolefully about doleful American repudiation, "_dis_owning of the +soft impeachment"; and here on the other hand is an American +man, in virtue of whom America has become definable withal as a +place from which fall heavenly manna-showers upon certain men, at +certain seasons of history, when perhaps manna-showers were not +the unneedfulest things!--We will take the good and the evil, +here as elsewhere, and heartily bless Heaven. + +But now for the Draft at the top of this leaf. One Colman,* a +kind of Agricultural Missionary, much in vogue here at present, +has given it me; it is Emerson's, the net produce hitherto (all +but two cents) of _Emerson's Essays._ I enclose farther the +Bookseller's hieroglyph papers; unintelligible as all such are; +but sent over to you for scrutiny by the expert. I gather only +that there are some Five Hundred and odd of the dear-priced +edition sold, some Two Hundred and odd still to sell, which the +Bookseller says are (in spite of pirates) slowly selling; and +that the half profit upon the whole adventure up to this date has +been L24 15s. 11d. sterling,--equal, as I am taught, at $4.88 per +pound sterling, to $121.02, for which, all but the cents, here is +a draft on Boston, payable at sight. Pray have yourself +straightway _paid;_ that if there be any mistake or delay I may +rectify it while time yet is.--I add, for the intelligence of the +Bookseller-Papers, that Fraser, with whom the bargain originally +stood, was succeeded by Nickerson; these are the names of the +parties. And so, dear Friend; accept this munificent sum of +Money; and expect a blessing with it if good wishes from the +heart of man can give one. So much for that. + +--------- +* The Reverend Henry Colman. +--------- + +Did you receive a Dumfries Newspaper with a criticism in it? The +author is one Gilfillan, a young Dissenting Minister in Dundee; +a person of great talent, ingenuousness, enthusiasm, and other +virtues; whose position as a Preacher of bare old Calvinism +under penalty of death sometimes makes me tremble for him. He +has written in that same Newspaper about all the notablest men of +his time; Godwin, Corn-law Elliott and I know not all whom: if +he publish the Book, I will take care to send it you.* I saw the +man for the first time last autumn, at Dumfries; as I said, his +being a Calvinist Dissenting Minister, economically fixed, and +spiritually with such germinations in him, forces me to be very +reserved to him. + +----------- +* The sketches were published the next year in a volume under +the title of _The Gallery of Literary Portraits._ +----------- + +John Sterling's _Dial_ shall be forwarded to Ventnor in the Isle +of Wight, whenever it arrives. He was here, as probably I told +you, about two months ago, the old unresting brilliantly +radiating man. He is now much richer in money than he was, and +poorer by the loss of a good Mother and good Wife: I understand +he is building himself a brave house, and also busy writing a +poem. He flings too much "sheet-lightning" and unrest into me +when we meet in these low moods of mine; and yet one always +longs for him back again: "No doing with him or without him," +the dog! + +My thrice unfortunate Book on Cromwell,--it is a real descent to +Hades, to Golgotha and Chaos! I feel oftenest as if it were +possibler to die one's self than to bring it into life. Besides, +my health is in general altogether despicable, my "spirits" equal +to those of the ninth part of a dyspeptic tailor! One needs to +be able to go on in all kinds of spirits, in climate sunny or +sunless, or it will never do. The planet Earth, says Voss,--take +four hexameters from Voss: + +Journeys this Earth, her eye on a Sun, through the heavenly spaces; +Joyous in radiance, or joyless by fits and swallowed in tempests; +Falters not, alters not, equal advancing, home at the due hour: +So thou, weather-proof, constant, may, equal with day, March! + +I have not a moment more tonight;--and besides am inclined to +write unprofitables if I persist. Adieu, my friend; all +blessings be with you always. + +Yours ever truly, + T. Carlyle + + + + +XC. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 29 February, 1844 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I received by the last steamer your letter, and +its prefixed order for one hundred and twenty-one dollars, which +order I sent to Ward, who turned it at once into money. Thanks, +dear friend, for your care and activity, which have brought me +this pleasing and most unlooked for result. And I beg you, if +you know any family representative of Mr. Fraser, to express my +sense of obligation to that departed man. I feel a kindness not +without some wonder for those good-natured five hundred +Englishmen who could buy and read my miscellany. I shall not +fail to send them a new collection, which I hope they will like +better. My faith in the Writers, as an organic class, increases +daily, and in the possibility to a faithful man of arriving at +statements for which he shall not feel responsible, but which +shall be parallel with nature. Yet without any effort I fancy I +make progress also in the doctrine of Indifferency, and am +certain and content that the truth can very well spare me, and +have itself spoken by another without leaving it or me the worse. +Enough if we have learned that music exists, that it is proper to +us, and that we cannot go forth of it. Our pipes, however shrill +and squeaking, certify this our faith in Tune, and the eternal +Amelioration may one day reach our ears and instruments. It is a +poor second thought, this literary activity. + +Perhaps I am not made obnoxious to much suffering, but I have had +happy hours enough in gazing from afar at the splendors of the +Intellectual Law, to overpay me for any pains I know. Existence +may go on to be better, and, if it have such insights, it never +can be bad. You sometimes charge me with I know not what sky- +blue, sky-void idealism. As far as it is a partiality, I fear I +may be more deeply infected than you think me. I have very +joyful dreams which I cannot bring to paper, much less to any +approach to practice, and I blame myself not at all for my +reveries, but that they have not yet got possession of my house +and barn. But I shall not lose my love for books. I only +worship Eternal Buddh in the retirements and intermissions of +Brahma.--But I must not egotize and generalize to the end of my +sheet, as I have a message or two to declare. + +I enclose a bill of exchange on the Barings for thirty-six +pounds; which is the sum of two recent payments of Munroe and of +Little and Brown, whereof I do not despair you shall yet have +some account in booksellers' figures. I have got so far with +Clark as to have his consent to audit the accounts when I shall +get energy and time enough to compile them out of my ridiculous +Journal. Munroe begs me to say what possibly I have already +asked for him, that, when the _History of Cromwell_ is ready to +be seen of men, you will have an entire copy of the Manuscript +taken, and sent over to us. Then will he print a cheap edition +such as no one will undersell, and secure such a share of profit +to the author as the cheap press allows. Perhaps only thirty or +forty pounds would make it worth while to take the trouble. A +valued friend of mine wishes to know who wrote (perhaps three +years ago) a series of metaphysical articles in _Blackwood_ on +Consciousness. Can you remember and tell me? And now I commend +you to the good God, you and your History, and the true kind wife +who is always good to the eager Yankees, and am yours heartily, + + --R.W. Emerson + + + +XCI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 8 April, 1844 + +Dear Emerson,--Till within five minutes of the limit of my time, +I had forgotten that this was the 3d of the Month; that I +had a Letter to write acknowledging even money! Take the +acknowledgment, given in all haste, not without a gratitude that +will last longer: the Thirty-six pounds and odd shillings came +safe in your Letter, a new unlooked-for Gift. America, I think, +is like an amiable family teapot; you think it is all out long +since, and lo, the valuable implement yields you another cup, and +another! Many thanks to you, who are the heart of America to me. + +Republishing for one's friend's sake, I find on consulting my +Bookseller, is out here; we have Pirates waiting for every +American thing of mark, as you have for every British; to the +tender mercies of these, on both sides, I fancy the business must +be committed. They do good too; as all does, even carrion: +they send you _faster_ abroad, if the world have any use for +you;--oftenest it only thinks it has. Your _Essays,_ the Pirated +_Essays,_ make an ugly yellow tatter of a Pamphlet, price 1s. +6d.; but the edition is all sold, I understand: and even +Nickerson has not entirely ceased to sell. The same Pirate who +pounced upon you made an attempt the other day on my poor _Life +of Schiller,_ but I put the due spoke in his wheel. They have +sent me Lowell's _Poems;_ they are bringing out Jean Paul's +Life, &c., &c.; the hungry _Canaille._ It is strange that men +should feel themselves so entirely at liberty to steal, simply +because there is no gallows to hang them for doing it. Your new +Book will be eagerly waited for by that class of persons; and +also by another class which is daily increasing here. + +The only other thing I am "not to forget" is that of the _Essay +on Consciousness_ in _Blackwood._ The writer of those Papers is +one Ferrier, a Nephew of the Edinburgh Miss Ferrier who wrote +_Marriage_ and some other Novels; Nephew also of Professor +Wilson (Christopher North), and married to one of his daughters. +A man of perhaps five-and-thirty; I remember him in boyhood, +while he was boarded with an Annandale Clergyman; I have seen +him since manhood, and liked him well: a solid, square-visaged, +dark kind of man, more like your Theodore Parker than any mutual +specimen I can recollect. + +He got the usual education of an Edinburgh Advocate; but found +no practice at the Bar, nor sought any with due anxiety, I +believe; addicted himself to logical meditations;--became, +the other year, Professor of Universal History, or some +such thing, in the Edinburgh University, and lectures with +hardly any audience: a certain _young_ public wanted me +to be that Professor there, but I knew better,--Is this +enough about Ferrier? + +I will not add another word; the time being _past,_ +irretrievable except by half-running! + +Write us your Book; and be well and happy always!* + +------- +* The signature has been cut off. +------- + + + + +XCII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 5 August, 1844 + +Dear Emerson,--There had been a long time without direct news +from you, till four days ago your Letter arrived. This day I +understand to be the ultimate limit of the American Mail; +yesterday, had it not been Sunday, would have been the limit: I +write a line, therefore, though in very great haste. + +Poor Sterling, even I now begin to fear, is in a very bad way. +He had two successive attacks of spitting of blood, some three +months ago or more; the second attack of such violence, and his +previous condition then so weak, that the Doctor as good as gave +up hope,--the poor Patient himself had from the first given it +up. Our poor Friend has had so many attacks of that nature, and +so rapidly always rallied from them, I gave no ear to these +sinister prognostics; but now that I see the summer influences +passing over him without visible improvement, and our good +weather looking towards a close without so much strength added as +will authorize even a new voyage to Madeira;--I too am at last +joining in the general discouragement; all the sadder to me that +I shut it out so long. Sir James Clark, our best-accredited +Physician for such diseases, declares that Life, for certain +months, may linger, with great pain; but that recovery is not to +be expected. Great part of the lungs, it appears, is totally +unserviceable for respiration; from the remainder, especially in +times of coughing, it is with the greatest difficulty that breath +enough is obtained. Our poor Patient passes the night in a +sitting posture; cannot lie down: that fact sticks with me ever +since I heard it! He is very weak, very pale; still "writes a +great deal daily"; but does not wish to see anybody; declines +to "see even Carlyle," who offered to go to him. His only +Brother, Anthony Sterling, a hardy soldier, lately withdrawn from +the Army, and settled in this quarter, whom we often communicate +with, is about going down to the Isle of Wight this week: he saw +John four days ago, and brings nothing but bad news,--of which +indeed this removal of his to the neighborhood of the scene is a +practical testimony. The old Father, a Widower for the last two +years, and very lonely and dispirited, seems getting feebler and +feebler: he was here yesterday: a pathetic kind of spectacle to +us. Alas, alas! But what can be said? I say Nothing; I have +written only one Note to Sterling: I feel it probable that I +shall never see him more,--nor his like again in this world. His +disease, as I have from of old construed it, is a burning of him +up by his own fire. The restless vehemence of the man, +struggling in all ways these many years to find a legitimate +outlet, and finding, except for transitory, unsatisfactory +coruscations, none, has undermined its Clay Prison in the weakest +point (which proves to be the lungs), and will make outlet +_there._ My poor Sterling! It is an old tragedy; and very +stern whenever it repeats itself of new. + +Today I get answer about Alfred Tennyson: all is right on that +side. Moxon informs me that the Russell Books and Letter arrived +duly, and were duly forwarded and safely received; nay, farther, +that Tennyson is now in Town, and means to come and see me. Of +this latter result I shall be very glad: Alfred is one of the +few British or Foreign Figures (a not increasing number I think!) +who are and remain beautiful to me;--a true human soul, or some +authentic approximation thereto, to whom your own soul can say, +Brother!--However, I doubt he will not come; he often skips me, +in these brief visits to Town; skips everybody indeed; being a +man solitary and sad, as certain men are, dwelling in an element +of gloom,--carrying a bit of Chaos about him, in short, which he +is manufacturing into Cosmos! + +Alfred is the son of a Lincolnshire Gentleman Farmer, I think; +indeed, you see in his verses that he is a native of "moated +granges," and green, fat pastures, not of mountains and their +torrents and storms. He had his breeding at Cambridge, as if for +the Law or Church; being master of a small annuity on his +Father's decease, he preferred clubbing with his Mother and some +Sisters, to live unpromoted and write Poems. In this way he +lives still, now here, now there; the family always within reach +of London, never in it; he himself making rare and brief visits, +lodging in some old comrade's rooms. I think he must be under +forty, not much under it. One of the finest-looking men in the +world. A great shock of rough dusty-dark hair; bright-laughing +hazel eyes; massive aquiline face, most massive yet most +delicate; of sallow-brown complexion, almost Indian-looking; +clothes cynically loose, free-and-easy;--smokes infinite tobacco. +His voice is musical metallic,--fit for loud laughter and +piercing wail, and all that may lie between; speech, and +speculation free and plenteous: I do not meet, in these late +decades, such company over a pipe!--We shall see what he will +grow to. He is often unwell; very chaotic,--his way is through +Chaos and the Bottomless and Pathless; not handy for making out +many miles upon. (O Paper!) + +I trust there is now joy in place of pain in the House at +Concord, and a certain Mother grateful again to the Supreme +Powers! We are all in our customary health here, or nearly so; +my Wife has been in Lancashire, among her kindred there, for a +month lately: our swollen City is getting empty and still; we +think of trying an Autumn _here_ this time.--Get your Book ready; +there are readers ready for it! And be busy and victorious! + +Ever Yours, + T. Carlyle + +My _History_ is frightful! If I live, it is like to be +completed; but whether I shall live, and not rather be buried +alive, broken-hearted, in the Serbonian Quagmires of English +Stupidity, and so sleep beside Cromwell, often seems uncertain. +Erebus has no uglier, brutaler element. Let us say nothing of +it. Let us do it, or leave it to the Devils. _Ay de mi!_ + + + + +XCIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 1 September, 1844 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I have just learned that in an hour Mr. +Wilmer's mail-bag for London, by the "Acadia," closes, and I will +not lose the occasion of sending you a hasty line: though I had +designed to write you from home on sundry matters, which now must +wait. I send by this steamer some sheets, to the bookseller John +Chapman,--proofsheets of my new book of Essays. Chapman wrote to +me by the last steamer, urging me to send him some manuscript +that had not yet been published in America, and he thought he +could make an advantage from printing it, and even, in some +conditions, procure a copyright, and he would publish for me on +the plan of half-profits. The request was so timely, since I was +not only printing a book, but also a pamphlet (an Address to +citizens of some thirteen towns who celebrated in Concord the +negro Emancipation on 1st August last), that I came to town +yesterday, and hastened the printers, and have now sent him +proofs of all the Address, and of more than half the book. If +you can give Chapman any counsel, or save me from any nonsense by +enjoining on him careful correction, you shall. + +I looked eagerly for a letter from you by the last steamer, to +give me exact tidings of Sterling. None came; but I received a +short note from Sterling himself, which intimated that he had but +a few more days to live. It is gloomy news. I beg you will +write me everything you can relate of him, by the next mail. If +you can learn from his friends whether the packet of his +Manuscripts and printed papers, returned by Russell and sent by +me through Harnden's Express to Ventnor, arrived safely, it would +be a satisfaction. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +XCIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 29 September, 1844 + +Dear Emerson,--There should a Letter have come for you by that +Steamer; for I wrote one duly, and posted it in good time +myself: I will hope therefore it was but some delay of some +subaltern official, such as I am told occasionally chances, and +that you got the Letter after all in a day or two. It would give +you notice, more or less, up to its date, of all the points you +had inquired about there is now little to be added; except +concerning the main point, That the catastrophe has arrived there +as we foresaw, and all is ended. + +John Sterling died at his house in Ventnor on the night of +Wednesday, 18th September, about eleven o'clock; unexpectedly at +last, and to appearance without pain. His Sister-in-law, Mrs. +Maurice; had gone down to him from this place about a week +before; other friends were waiting as it were in view of him; +but he wished generally to be alone, to continue to the last +setting his house and his heart more and more in order for the +Great Journey. For about a fortnight back he had ceased to have +himself formally dressed; had sat only in his dressing-gown, but +I believe was still daily wheeled into his Library, and sat very +calmly sorting and working there. He sent me two Notes, and +various messages, and gifts of little keepsakes to my Wife and +myself: the Notes were brief, stern and loving; altogether +noble; never to be forgotten in this world. His Brother +Anthony, who had been in the Isle of Wight within call for +several weeks, had now come up to Town again; but, after about a +week, decided that he would run down again, and look. He arrived +on the Wednesday night, about nine o'clock; found no visible +change; the brave Patient calm as ever, ready to speak as ever, +--to say, in direct words which he would often do, or indirectly +as his whole speech and conduct did, "God is Great." Anthony and +he talked for a while, then took leave for the night; in +few minutes more, Anthony was summoned to the bedside, and +at eleven o'clock, as I said, the curtain dropt, and it was +all ended.--_Euge!_ + +Whether the American _Manuscripts_ had arrived I do not yet know, +but probably shall before this Letter goes; for Anthony is to +return hither on Tuesday, and I will inquire. Our Friend is +buried in Ventnor Churchyard; four big Elms overshadow the +little spot; it is situated on the southeast side of that green +Island, on the slope of steep hills (as I understand it) that +look toward the Sun, and are close within sight and hearing of +the Sea. There shall he rest, and have fit lullaby, this brave +one. He has died as a man should; like an old Roman, yet with +the Christian Bibles and all newest revelations present to him. +He refused to see friends; men whom I think he loved as well as +any,--me for one when I obliquely proposed it, he refused. He +was even a little stern on his nearest relatives when they came +to him: Do I need your help to die? Phocion-like he seemed to +feel degraded by physical decay; to feel that he ought to wrap +his mantle round him, and say, "I come, Persephoneia; it is not +I that linger!"--His Sister-in-law, Anthony's Wife, probably +about a month ago, while they were still in Wight, had begged +that she might see him yet once; her husband would be there too, +she engaged not to speak. Anthony had not yet persuaded him, +when she, finding the door half open, went in: his pale changed +countenance almost made her shriek; she stept forward silently, +kissed his brow in silence; he burst into tears. Let us speak +no more of this.--A great quantity of papers, I understand, are +left for my determination; what is to be done with them I will +sacredly endeavor to do. + +I have visited your Bookseller Chapman; seen the Proof-sheets +lying on his table; taken order that the reprint shall be well +corrected,--indeed, I am to read every sheet myself, and in that +way get acquainted with it, before it go into stereotype. +Chapman is a tall, lank youth of five-and-twenty; full of good +will, but of what other equipment time must yet try. By a little +Book of his, which I looked at some months ago, he seemed to me +sunk very deep in the dust-hole of extinct Socinianism; a +painful predicament for a man! He is not sure of saving much +copyright for you; but he will do honestly what in that respect +is doable; and he will print the Book correctly, and publish it +decently, I saying _imprimatur_ if occasion be,--and your ever- +increasing little congregation here will do with the new word +what they can. I add no more today; reserving a little nook for +the answer I hope to get two days hence. Adieu, my Friend: it +is silent Sunday; the populace not yet admitted to their beer- +shops, till the respectabilities conclude their rubric- +mummeries,--a much more audacious feat than beer! We have +wet wind at Northeast, and a sky somewhat of the dreariest:-- +Courage! a _little_ way above it reigns mere blue, and +sunshine eternally!--T.C. + +_Wednesday, October 2d._--The Letter had to wait till today, and +is still in time. Anthony Sterling, who is yet at Ventnor, +apprises me this morning that according to his and the Governess's +belief the Russell Manuscripts arrived duly, and were spoken +of more than once by our Friend.--On Monday I received from +this same Anthony a big packet by Post; it contains among +other things all your Letters to John, wrapt up carefully, and +addressed in his hand, "Emerson's Letters, to be returned through +the hands of Carlyle": they shall go towards you next week, by +Mr. James, who is about returning. Among the other Papers was +one containing seven stanzas of verse addressed to T. Carlyle, +14th September; full of love and enthusiasm;--the Friday before +his death: I was visiting the old City of Winchester that day, +among the tombs of Canutes and eldest noble ones: you may judge +how sacred the memory of those hours now is! + +I have read your Slavery Address; this morning the first _half_- +sheet, in Proof, of the _Essays_ has come: perfectly correct, +and right good reading. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +XCV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 September, 1844 +My Dear Friend,--I enclose a bill of exchange for thirty pounds +sterling which I procured in town today at $5 each pound, or +$150; so high, it seems, is the rate at present, higher, they +said, than for years. It is good booksellers' money from Little +and Brown, and James Munroe & Co., in unequal proportions. If +you wish for more accurate information and have a great deal of +patience, there is still hope that you may obtain it before +death; for I this day met E.P. Clark in Washington Street, and +he reported some progress in auditing of accounts, and said that +when presently his family should return to town for the winter, +he would see to the end of them, i.e. the accounts. + +I received with great satisfaction your letter of July, which +came by a later steamer than it was written for, but gave me +exact and solid information on what I most wished to know. May +you live forever, and may your reports of men and things be +accessible to me whilst I live! Even if, as now in Sterling's +case, the news are the worst, or nearly so, yet let whatever +comes for knowledge be precise, for the direst tragedy that is +accurately true must share the blessing of the Universe. I have +no later tidings from Sterling, and I must still look to you to +tell me what you can. I dread that the story should be short. +May you have much good to tell of him, and for many a day to +come! The sketch you drew of Tennyson was right welcome, for he +is an old favorite of mine,--I owned his book before I saw your +face;--though I love him with allowance. O cherish him with love +and praise, and draw from him whole books full of new verses yet. +The only point on which you never give precise intelligence is +your own book; but you shall have your will in that; so only +you arrive on the shores of light at last, with your mystic +freight fished partly out of the seas of time, and partly out of +the empyrean deeps. + +I have much regretted a sudden note I wrote you just before the +steamer of 1 September sailed, entreating you to cumber yourself +about my proofsheets sent to the London bookseller. I heartily +absolve you from all such vexations. Nothing could be more +inconsiderate. Mr. Chapman is undoubtedly amply competent to +ordinary correction, and I much prefer to send you my little book +in decent trim than in rags and stains and deformities more than +its own. I have just corrected and sent to the steamer the last +sheets for Mr. Chapman, who is to find English readers if he can. +I shall ask Mr. Chapman to send you a copy, for his edition will +be more correct than mine. What can I tell you better? Why even +this, that this house rejoices in a brave boy, now near three +months old. Edward we call him, and my wife calls him Edward +Waldo. When shall I show him to you? And when shall I show you +a pretty pasture and wood-lot which I bought last week on the +borders of a lake which is the chief ornament of this town, +called Walden Pond? One of these days, if I should have any +money, I may build me a cabin or a turret there high as the tree- +tops, and spend my nights as well as days in the midst of a +beauty which never fades for me. + +Yours with love, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +XCVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 3 November, 1844 + +Dear Emerson,--By the clearest law I am bound to write you a word +today, were my haste even greater than it is. The last American +fleet or ship, about the middle of last month, brought me a Draft +for Thirty Pounds; which I converted into ready cash, and have +here,--and am now your grateful debtor for, as of old. There +seems to be no end to those Boston Booksellers! I think the well +is dry; and straightway it begins to run again. Thanks to you: +--it is, I dare say, a thing you too are grateful for. We will +recognize it among the good things of this rather indifferent +world.--By the way, if that good Clark _like_ his business, let +him go on with it; but if not, stop him, poor fellow! It is to +me a matter of really small moment whether those Booksellers' +accounts be ever audited in this world, or left over to the +General Day of Audit. I myself shudder at the sight of such +things; and make my bargain here so always as to have no trade +with them, but to be _netto_ from the first. Why should I +plague poor Clark with them, if it be any plague to him? The +Booksellers will never _know_ but we examine them! The very +terror of Clark's name will be as the bark of chained Mastiff,-- +and no need for actual biting! Have due pity on the man. + +Your English volume of _Essays,_ as Chapman probably informs you +by this Post, was advertised yesterday, "with a Preface from me." +That is hardly accurate, that latter clause. My "Preface" +consists only of a certificate that the Book is correctly +printed, and sent forth by a Publisher of your appointment, whom +therefore all readers of yours ought to regard accordingly. +Nothing more. There proves, I believe, no visible real vestige +of a copyright obtainable here; only Chapman asserts that he +_has_ obtained one, and that he will take all contraveners into +Chancery,--which has a terrible sound; and indeed the Act he +founds on is of so distracted, inextricable a character, it may +mean anything and all things, and no Sergeant Talfourd whom we +could consult durst take upon him to say that it meant almost +anything whatever. The sound of "Chancery," the stereotype +character of this volume, and its cheap price, may perhaps deter +pirates,--who are but a weak body in this country as yet. I +judged it right to help in that; and impertinent, at this stage +of affairs, to go any farther. The Book is very fairly printed, +onward. at least to the Essay _New England Politics,_ where my +"perfect-copy" of the sheets as yet stops. I did not read any of +the Proofs except two; finding it quite superfluous, and a sad +waste of time to the hurried Chapman himself. I have found yet +but one error, and that a very correctable one, "narvest" for +"harvest";--no other that I recollect at present. + +The work itself falling on me by driblets has not the right +chance yet--not till I get it in the bound state, and read it all +at once--to produce its due impression on me. But I will say +already of it, It is a _sermon_ to me, as all your other +deliberate utterances are; a real _word,_ which I feel to be +such,--alas, almost or altogether the one such, in a world all +full of jargons, hearsays, echoes, and vain noises, which cannot +pass with me for _words!_ This is a praise far beyond any +"literary" one; literary praises are not worth repeating in +comparison. For the rest, I have to object still (what you will +call objecting against the Law of Nature) that we find you a +Speaker indeed, but as it were a _Soliloquizer_ on the eternal +mountain-tops only, in vast solitudes where men and their affairs +lie all hushed in a very dim remoteness; and only the man and +the stars and the earth are visible,--whom, so fine a fellow +seems he, we could perpetually punch into, and say, "Why won't +you come and help us then? We have terrible need of one man like +you down among us! It is cold and vacant up there; nothing +paintable but rainbows and emotions; come down, and you shall do +life-pictures, passions, facts,--which _transcend_ all thought, +and leave it stuttering and stammering! To which he answers that +he won't, can't, and doesn't want to (as the Cockneys have it): +and so I leave him, and say, "You Western Gymnosophist! Well, we +can afford one man for that too. But--!--By the bye, I ought to +say, the sentences are very _brief;_ and did not, in my sheet +reading, always entirely cohere for me. Pure genuine Saxon; +strong and simple; of a clearness, of a beauty--But they did +not, sometimes, rightly stick to their foregoers and their +followers: the paragraph not as a beaten ingot, but as a +beautiful square _bag of duck-shot_ held together by canvas! I +will try them again, with the Book deliberately before me.--There +are also one or two utterances about "Jesus," "immortality," and +so forth, which will produce wide-eyes here and there. I do not +say it was wrong to utter them; a man obeys his own Daemon in +these cases as his supreme law. I dare say you are a little +bored occasionally with "Jesus," &c.,--as I confess I myself am, +when I discern what a beggarly Twaddle they have made of all +that, what a greasy Cataplasm to lay to their own poltrooneries;- +-and an impatient person may exclaim with Voltaire, in serious +moments: "_Au nom de Dieu, ne me parlez plus de cet homme-la!_ +I have had enough of him;--I tell you I am alive too!" + +Well, I have scribbled at a great rate; regardless of Time's +flight!--My Wife thanks many times for M. Fuller's Book. I sent +by Mr. James a small Packet of _your_ letters--which will make +you sad to look at them! Adieu, dear friend. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +XCVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 December, 1844 + +My Dear Friend,--I have long owed you a letter and have much to +acknowledge. Your two letters containing tidings, the first of +the mortal illness, and the second of the death of Sterling, I +had no heart to answer. I had nothing to say. Alas! as in so +many instances heretofore, I knew not what to think. Life is +somewhat customary and usual; and death is the unusual and +astonishing; it kills in so far the survivor also, when it +ravishes from him friendship and the most noble and admirable +qualities. That which we call faith seems somewhat stoical and +selfish, if we use it as a retreat from the pangs this ravishment +inflicts. I had never seen him, but I held him fast; now I see +him not, but I can no longer hold him. Who can say what he yet +is and will be to me? The most just and generous can best divine +that. I have written in vain to James to visit me, or to send me +tidings. He sent me, without any note, the parcel you confided +to him, and has gone to Albany, or I know not whither. + +I have your notes of the progress of my London printing, and, at +last, the book itself. It was thoughtless in me to ask your +attention to the book at all in the proof state; the printer +might have been fully trusted with corrected printed pages before +him. Nor should Chapman have taxed you for an advertisement; +only, I doubt not he was glad of a chance to have business with +you; and, of course, was too thankful for any Preface. Thanks +to you for the kind thought of a "Notice," and for its friendly +wit. You shall not do this thing again, if I should send you any +more books. A Preface from you is a sort of banner or oriflamme, +a little too splendid for my occasion, and misleads. I fancy my +readers to be a very quiet, plain, even obscure class,--men and +women of some religious culture and aspirations, young, or else +mystical, and by no means including the great literary and +fashionable army, which no man can count, who now read your +books. If you introduce me, your readers and the literary papers +try to read me, and with false expectations. I had rather have +fewer readers and only such as belong to me. + +I doubt not your stricture on the book as sometimes unconnected +and inconsecutive is just. Your words are very gentle. I should +describe it much more harshly. My knowledge of the defects of +these things I write is all but sufficient to hinder me from +writing at all. I am only a sort of lieutenant here in the +deplorable absence of captains, and write the laws ill as +thinking it a better homage than universal silence. You +Londoners know little of the dignities and duties of country +lyceums. But of what you say now and heretofore respecting the +remoteness of my writing and thinking from real life, though I +hear substantially the same criticism made by my countrymen, I do +not know what it means. If I can at any time express the law and +the ideal right, that should satisfy me without measuring the +divergence from it of the last act of Congress. And though I +sometimes accept a popular call, and preach on Temperance or the +Abolition of Slavery, as lately on the 1st of August, I am sure +to feel, before I have done with it, what an intrusion it is into +another sphere, and so much loss of virtue in my own. Since I am +not to see you from year to year, is there never an Englishman +who knows you well, who comes to America, and whom you can send +to me to answer all my questions? Health and love and joy to you +and yours. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +XCVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 January, 1845 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Carey and Hart of Philadelphia, booksellers, +have lately proposed to buy the remainder of our Boston edition +of your _Miscellanies,_ or to give you a bonus for sanctioning an +edition of the same, which they propose to publish. On inquiry, +I have found that only thirteen entire sets of four volumes +remain to us unsold; whilst we have 226 copies of Volume III., +and 243 copies of Volume IV., remaining. + +In replying to Mr. Carey, I proposed that, besides the proposed +bonus, he should buy of me these old volumes, which are not bound +but folded, at 25 cents a volume, (Monroe having roughly computed +the cost at 40 cents a volume,) but this he declines to do, and +offers fifty pounds sterling for his bonus. I decided at once to +accept his offer, thinking it a more favorable winding up of our +account than I could otherwise look for; as Mr. Carey knows much +better how to defend himself from pirates than I do. So I am to +publish that his edition is edited with your concurrence. Our +own remaining copies of entire sets I shall sell at once to +Monroe, at a reduced price, and the odd volumes I think to +dispose of by giving them a new and independent title-page. In +the circumstances of the trade here, I think Mr. Carey's offer a +very liberal one, and he is reputed in his dealings eminently +just and generous. + +My friend William Furness, who has corresponded with me on +Carey's behalf, has added now another letter to say that Mr. +Carey wishes to procure a picture of Mr. Carlyle to be engraved +for this edition. "He understands there is a good head by +Laurence, and he wishes to employ some London artist to make a +copy of it in oil or water colors, or in any way that will +suffice for the engraver; and he proposes to apply to Mr. +Carlyle for permission through Inman the American artist who is +now in England." Furness goes on to ask for my "good word" with +you in furtherance of this design. Well, I heartily hope you +will not resist so much good nature and true love; for Mr. +Furness and Mr. Griswold, and others who compose a sort +of advising committee to Mr. Carey, are sincere lovers of +yours. One more opportunity this crisis in our accounts will +give to that truest of all Carlylians, E.P. Clark, to make his +report. I called at his house two nights ago, in Boston; he +promised immediate attention, but quickly drew me aside to +his "Illustrations of Carlyle," an endless train of books, and +portfolios, and boxes of prints, in which every precious word of +that master is explained or confirmed. + +Affectionately yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +XCIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 16 February, 1845 + +Dear Emerson,--By the last Packet, which sailed on the 3d of the +month, I forgot to write to you, though already in your debt +one Letter; and there now has another Letter arrived, which on +the footing of mere business demands to be answered. I write +straightway; not knowing how the Post-Office people will +contrive the conveyance, or whether it can be sooner than by the +next Steam ship, but willing to give them a chance. + +You have made another brave bargain for me with the Philadelphia +people; to all of which I can say nothing but _"Euge! Papae!"_ +It seems to me strange, in the present state of Copyright, how my +sanction or the contrary can be worth L50 to any American +Bookseller; but so it is, to all appearance; let it be so, +therefore, with thanks and surprise. The Messrs. Carey and Lea +distinguish themselves by the beauty of their Editions; a poor +Author does not go abroad among his friends in dirty paper, full +of misprints, under their guidance; this is as handsome an item +of the business as any. As to the Portrait too, I will be as +"amiable" as heart could wish; truly it will be worth my while +to take a little pains that the kind Philadelphia Editors do once +for all get a faithful Portrait of me, since they are about it, +and so prevent counterfeits from getting into circulation. I +will endeavor to do in that matter whatsoever they require of me; +to the extent even of sitting two days for a Crayon Sketch such +as may be engraved,--though this new sacrifice of patience will +not be needed as matters are. It stands thus: there is no +Painter, of the numbers who have wasted my time and their own +with trying, that has indicated any capability of catching a true +Likeness, but one Samuel Lawrence; a young Painter of real +talent, not quite so young now, but still only struggling for +complete mastership in the management of colors. He does crayon +sketches in a way to please almost himself; but his oil +paintings, at least till within a year or two, have indicated +only a great faculty still crude in that particular. His oil +portrait of me, which you speak of, is almost terrible to behold! +It has the look of a Jotun, of a Scandinavian Demon, grim, sad, +as the angel of Death;--and the coloring is so _brick_ish, the +finishing so coarse, it reminds you withal of a flayed horse's +head! _"Dinna speak o't."_ But the preparatory crayon-sketch of +this, still in existence, is admired by some judges; poor John +Sterling bought it from the Painter, and it is now here in the +hands of his Brother, who will readily allow any authorized +person to take a drawing of it. Lawrence himself, I imagine, +would be the fittest man to employ; or your Mr. Ingham [Inman], +if he be here and a capable person: one or both of these might +superintend the Engraving of it here, and not part with the plate +till it were pronounced satisfactory. In short, I am willing to +do "anything in reason"! Only if a Portrait is to be, I confess +I should rather avoid going abroad under the hands of bunglers, +at least of bunglers sanctioned by myself. There is a Portrait +of me in some miserable farrago called _Spirit of the Age;_* a +farrago unknown to me, but a Portrait known, for poor Lawrence +brought it down to me with sorrow in his face; it professes to +be from his painting; is a "Lais _without_ the beauty" (as +Charles Lamb used to say); a flayed horse's head without the +spiritualism, good or bad,--and simply figures on my mind as a +detestability; which I had much rather never have seen. These +poor _Spirit of the Age_ people applied to me; I described +myself as "busy," &c.; shoved them off me; and this monster of +iniquity, resembling Nothing in the Earth or under it, is the +result. In short, I am willing, I am willing; and so let us not +waste another drop of ink on it at present!--On the whole, are +not you a strange fellow? You apologize as if with real pain for +"trouble" I had, or indeed am falsely supposed to have had, with +Chapman here; and forthwith engage again in correspondences, in +speculations, and negotiations, and I know not what, on my +behalf! For shame, for shame! Nay, you have done one very +ingenious thing; to set Clark upon the Boston Booksellers' +accounts: it is excellent; Michael Scott setting the Devil +to twist ropes of sand, "There, my brave one; see if you don't +find work there for a while!" I never think of this Clark +without love and laughter. Once more, _Euge!_ Chapman is fast +selling your Books here; striking off a new Five Hundred from +his Stereotypes. You are wrong as to your Public in this +Country; it is a very pretty public; extends pretty much, +I believe, through all ranks, and is a growing one,--and a truly +_aristocratic,_ being of the bravest inquiring minds we have. +All things are breaking up here, like Swedish Frost in the end of +March; _gachis epouvantable._ Deep, very serious eternal +instincts, are at work; but as yet no serious word at all that I +hear, except what reaches me from Concord at intervals. Forward, +forward! And you do not know what I mean by calling you +"unpractical," "theoretic." _0 caeca corda!_ But I have no room +for such a theme at present. + +---------- +* "A new Spirit of the Age. Edited by R.H. Horne." In Two +Volumes. London, 1844. +---------- + +The reason I tell you nothing about Cromwell is, alas, that there +is nothing to be told. I am day and night, these long months and +years, very miserable about it,--nigh broken-hearted often. Such +a scandalous accumulation of Human Stupidity in every form never +lay before on such a subject. No history of it can be written to +this wretched, fleering, sneering, canting, twaddling, God- +forgetting generation. How can you explain men to Apes by the +Dead Sea?* And I am very sickly too, and my Wife is ill all this +cold weather,--and I am sunk in the bowels of Chaos, and scarce +once in the three months or so see so much as a possibility of +ever getting out! Cromwell's own _Letters and Speeches_ I have +gathered together, and washed clean from a thousand ordures: +these I do sometimes think of bringing out in a legible shape;-- +perhaps soon. Adieu, dear friend, with blessings always. + + --T. Carlyle + +Poor Sydney Smith is understood to be dying; water on the chest; +past hope of Doctors. Alas! + +--------- +* The dwellers by the Dead Sea who were changed to apes are +referred to in various places by Carlyle. He tells the story of +the metamorphosis, which he got from the introduction to Sale's +Koran, in _Past and Present,_ Book III. Ch. 3. +--------- + + + + +C. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, June 29, 1845 + +My Dear Friend,--I grieve to think of my slackness in writing, +which suffers steamer after steamer to go without a letter. But +I have still hoped, before each of the late packets sailed, that +I should have a message to send that would enforce a letter. I +wrote you some time ago of Mr. Carey's liberal proposition in +relation to your _Miscellanies._ I wrote, of course, to Furness, +through whom it was made to me, accepting the proposition; and I +forwarded to Mr. Carey a letter from me to be printed at the +beginning of the book, signifying your good-will to the edition, +and acknowledging the justice and liberality of the publishers. +I have heard no more from them, and now, a fortnight since, the +newspaper announces the death of Mr. Carey. He died very +suddenly, though always an invalid and extremely crippled. His +death is very much regretted in the Philadelphia papers, where he +bore the reputation of a most liberal patron of good and fine +arts. I have not heard from Mr. Furness, and have thought I +should still expect a letter from him. I hope our correspondence +will stand as a contract which Mr. Carey's representatives will +feel bound to execute. They had sent me a little earlier a copy +of Mr. Sartain's engraving from their water-color copy of +Laurence's head of you. They were eager to have the engraving +pronounced a good likeness. I showed it to Sumner, and Russell, +and Theodore Parker, who have seen you long since I had, and they +shook their heads unanimously and declared that D'Orsay's profile +was much more like. + +--------- +** From the rough draft. +--------- + +I creep along the roads and fields of this town as I have done +from year to year. When my garden is shamefully overgrown with +weeds, I pull up some of them. I prune my apples and pears. I +have a few friends who gild many hours of the year. I sometimes +write verses. I tell you with some unwillingness, as knowing +your distaste for such things, that I have received so many +applications from readers and printers for a volume of poems that +I have seriously taken in hand the collection, transcription, or +scription of such a volume, and may do the enormity before New +Year's day. Fear not, dear friend, you shall not have to read +one line. Perhaps I shall send you an official copy, but I shall +appeal to the tenderness of Jane Carlyle, and excuse your +formidable self, for the benefit of us both. Where all writing +is such a caricature of the subject, what signifies whether the +form is a little more or less ornate and luxurious? Meantime, I +think to set a few heads before me, as good texts for winter +evening entertainments. I wrote a deal about Napoleon a few +months ago, after reading a library of memoirs. Now I have +Plato, Montaigne, and Swedenborg, and more in the clouds behind. +What news of Naseby and Worcester? + + + + +CI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 29 August, 1845 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter, which had been very long expected, +has been in my hand above a month now; and still no answer sent +to it. I thought of answering straightway; but the day went +by, days went by;--and at length I decided to wait till my +insupportable Burden (the "Stupidity of Two Centuries" as I call +it, which is a heavy load for one man!) were rolled off my +shoulders, and I could resume the habit of writing Letters, which +has almost left me for many months. By the unspeakable blessing +of Heaven that consummation has now arrived, about four days ago +I wrote my last word on _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches;_ and +one of the earliest uses I make of my recovered freedom is to +salute you again. The Book is nearly printed: two big volumes; +about a half of it, I think, my own; the real utterances of the +man Oliver Cromwell once more legible to earnest men. Legible +really to an unexpected extent: for the Book took quite an +unexpected figure in my hands; and is now a kind of Life of +Oliver, the best that circumstances would permit me to do:-- +whether either I or England shall be, in my time, fit for a +better, remains submitted to the Destinies at present. I have +tied up the whole Puritan Paper-Litter (considerable masses of it +still unburnt) with tight strings, and hidden it at the bottom of +my deepest repositories: there shall _it,_ if Heaven please, lie +dormant for a time and times. Such an element as I have been in, +no human tongue can give account of. The disgust of my Soul has +been great; a really _pious_ labor: worth very little when I +have done it; but the best I could do; and that is quite +enough. I feel the liveliest gratitude to the gods that I have +got out of it alive. The Book is very dull, but it is actually +legible: all the ingenious faculty I had, and ten times as much +would have been useful there, has been employed in elucidation; +in saying, and chiefly in forbearing to say,--in annihilating +continents of brutal wreck and dung: _Ach Gott!_--But in fact +you will see it by and by; and then form your own conclusions +about it. They are going to publish it in October, I find: I +tried hard to get you a complete copy of the sheets by this +Steamer; but it proves to be flatly impossible;--perhaps +luckily; for I think you would have been bothering yourself with +some new Bookseller negotiation about it; and that, as copyright +and other matters now stand, is a thing I cannot recommend. +--Enough of it now: only let all my silences and other +shortcomings be explained thereby. I am now off for the North +Country, for a snatch still at the small remnants of Summer, and +a little free air and sunshine. I am really far from well, +though I have been riding diligently for three months back, and +doing what I could to help myself. + +Very glad shall I be, my Friend, to have some new utterances from +you either in verse or in prose! What you say about the vast +_imperfection_ of all modes of utterance is most true indeed. +Let a man speak and sing, and do, and sputter and gesticulate as +he may,--the meaning of him is most ineffectually shown forth, +poor fellow; rather _indicated_ as if by straggling symbols, +than _spoken_ or visually expressed! Poor fellow! So the great +rule is, That he _have_ a good manful meaning, and then that he +take what "mode of utterance" is honestly the readiest for him.-- +I wish you would take an American Hero, one whom you really love; +and give us a History of him,--make an artistic bronze statue (in +good _words_) of his Life and him! I do indeed.--But speak of +what you will, you are welcome to me. Once more I say, No other +voice in this wide waste world seems to my sad ear to be +_speaking_ at all at present. The more is the pity for us. + +I forbid you to plague yourself any farther with those +Philadelphia or other Booksellers. If you could hinder them to +promulgate any copy of that frightful picture by Lawrence, or +indeed any picture at all, I had rather stand as a shadow than as +a falsity in the minds of my American friends: but this too we +are prepared to encounter. And as for the money of these men,-- +if they will pay it, good and welcome; if they will not pay it, +let them keep it with what blessing there may be in it! I have +your noble offices in that and in other such matters already +unforgetably sure to me; and, in real fact, that is almost +exactly the whole of valuable that could exist for me in the +affair. Adieu, dear Friend. Write to me again; I will write +again at more leisure. + +Yours always, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 15 September, 1845 + +My Dear Friend,--I have seen Furness of Philadelphia, who was, +last week, in Boston, and inquired of him what account I should +send you of the new Philadelphia edition. "Has not Mr. Carey +paid you?" he said.--No. "Then has he not paid Carlyle +directly?" No, as I believe, or I should have heard of it.-- +Furness replied, that the promised fifty pounds were sure, and +that the debt would have been settled before this time, if Mr. +Carey had lived. So as this is no longer a Three Blind +Callenders' business of Arabian Nights, I shall rest secure. I +have doubted whether the bad name which Philadelphia has gotten +in these times would not have disquieted you in this long delay. +If you have ever heard directly from Carey and Hart, you will +inform me. + +I am to read to a society in Boston presently some lectures, +--on Plato, or the Philosopher; Swedenborg, or the Mystic; +Montaigne, or the Sceptic; Shakespeare, or the Poet; Napoleon, +or the Man of the World;--if I dare, and much lecturing makes us +incorrigibly rash. Perhaps, before I end it, my list will be +longer, and the measure of presumption overflowed. I may take +names less reverend than some of these,--but six lectures I have +promised. I find this obligation usually a good spur to the +sides of that dull horse I have charge of. But many of its +advantages must be regarded at a long distance. + +I have heard nothing from you for a long time,--so may your +writing prosper the more. I wish to hear, however, concerning +you, and your house, and your studies, when there is little to +tell. The steamers come so fast--to exchange cards would not be +nothing. My wife and children and my mother are well. Peace and +love to your household. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +CIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 September, 1845 + +My Dear Friend,--I had hardly sent away my letter by the last +steamer, when yours full of good news arrived. I greet you +heartily on the achievement of your task, and the new days of +freedom obtained and deserved. Happiest, first, that you can +work, which seems the privilege of the great, and then, also, +that thereby you can come at the sweetness of victory and rest. +Yes, flee to the country, ride, run, leap, sit, spread yourself +at large; and in all ways celebrate the immense benevolence of +the Universe towards you; and never complain again of dyspepsia, +crosses, or the folly of men; for in giving you this potent +concentration, what has been withholden? I am glad with all men +that a new book is made, that the gentle creation as well as the +grosser goes ever on. Another month will bring it to me, and I +shall know the secrets of these late silent years. Welcome the +child of my friend! Why should I regret that I see you not, when +you are forced thus intimately to discover yourself beyond the +intimacy of conversation? + +But you should have sent me out the sheets by the last steamer, +or a manuscript copy of the book. I do not know but Munroe would +have printed it at once, and defied the penny press. And slow +Time might have brought in his hands a most modest reward. + +I wrote you the other day the little I had to say on affairs. +Clark, the financial Conscience, has never yet made any report, +though often he promised. Half the year he lives out of Boston, +and unless I go to his Bank I never see his face. I think he +will not die till he have disburdened himself of this piece of +arithmetic. I pray you to send me my copy of this book at the +earliest hour, and to offer my glad congratulations to Jane +Carlyle, on an occasion, I am sure, of great peace and relief to +her spirit. And so farewell. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +CIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 11 November, 1846 + +My Dear Emerson,--I have had two Letters from you since I wrote +any; the latest of them was lying here for me when I returned, +about three weeks ago; the other I had received in Scotland: it +was only the last that demanded a special answer;--which, alas, I +meant faithfully to give it, but did not succeed! With meet +despatch I made the Bookseller get ready for you a Copy of the +unpublished _Cromwell_ Book; hardly complete as yet, it was +nevertheless put together, and even some kind of odious rudiments +of a _Portrait_ were bound up with it; and the Packet inscribed +with your address was put into Wiley and Putnam's hands in time +for the Mail Steamer;--and I hope has duly arrived? If it have +not, pray set the Booksellers a-hunting. Wiley and Putnam was +the Carrier's name; this is all the indication I can give, but +this, I hope, if indeed any prove needful, will be enough. One +may hope you have the Book already in your hands, a fortnight +before this reaches you, a month before any other Copy can reach +America. In which case the Parcel, _without_ any Letter, must +have seemed a little enigmatic to you! The reason was this: I +miscounted the day of the month, unlucky that I was. Sitting +down one morning with full purpose to write at large, and +all my tools round me, I discover that it is no longer +the third of November; that it is already the _fourth,_ +and the American Mail-Packet has already lifted anchor! +Irrevocable, irremediable! Nothing remained but to wait for +the 18th;--and now, as you see, to take Time by the forelock,-- +_queue,_ as we all know, he has none. + +My visit to Scotland was wholesome for me, tho' full of sadness, +as the like always is. Thirty years mow away a Generation of +Men. The old Hills, the old Brooks and Houses, are still there; +but the Population has marched away, almost all; it is not there +any more. I cannot enter into light talk with the survivors and +successors; I withdraw into silence, and converse with the old +dumb crags rather, in a melancholy and abstruse manner.--Thank +God, my good old Mother is still there; old and frail, but still +young of heart; as young and strong _there,_ I think, as ever. +It is beautiful to see affection survive where all else is +submitting to decay; the altar with its sacred fire still +burning when the outer walls are all slowly crumbling; material +Fate saying, "_They_ are mine!"--I read some insignificant Books; +smoked a great deal of tobacco; and went moping about among the +hills and hollow water-courses, somewhat like a shade in Hades. +The Gospel which this World of Fact does preach to one differs +considerably from the sugary twaddle one gets the offer of in +Exeter-Hall and other Spouting-places! Of which, in fact, I am +getting more and more weary; sometimes really impatient. It +seems to me the reign of Cant and Spoonyism has about lasted long +enough. Alas, in many respects, in this England I too often feel +myself sorrowfully in a "minority of one";--if in the whole +world, it amount to a minority of two, that is something! These +words of Goethe often come into my mind, _"Verachtung ja Nicht- +achtung."_ Lancashire, with its Titanic Industries, with its +smoke and dirt, and brutal stupor to all but money and the five +mechanical Powers, did not excite much admiration in me; +considerably less, I think, than ever! Patience, and shuffle +the cards! + +The Book on Cromwell is not to come out till the 22d of this +month. For many weeks it has been a real weariness to me; my +hope, always disappointed, that now is the last time I shall have +any trade with it. Even since I began writing, there has been an +Engraver here, requiring new indoctrination,--poor fellow! Nay, +in about ten days it _must_ be over: let us not complain. I +feel it well to be worth _nothing,_ except for the little +fractions or intermittent fits of pious industry there really +were in it; and my one wish is that the human species would be +pleased to take it off my hands, and honestly let me hear no more +about it! If it please Heaven, I will rest awhile still, and +then try something better. + +In three days hence, my Wife and I are off to the Hampshire coast +for a winter visit to kind friends there, if in such a place it +will prosper long with us. The climate there is greatly better +than ours; they are excellent people, well affected to us; and +can be lived with, though of high temper and ways! They are the +Lord Ashburtons, in fact; more properly the younger stratum of +that house; partly a kind of American people,--who know Waldo +Emerson, among other fine things, very well! I think we are to +stay some three weeks: the bustle of moving is already begun. + +You promise us a new Book soon? Let it be soon, then. There are +many persons here that will welcome it now. To one man here it +is ever as an _articulate voice_ amid the infinite cackling and +cawing. That remains my best definition of the effect it has on +me. Adieu, my friend. Good be with you and your Household +always. _Vale._ + + --T.C. + + + + +CV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 3 January, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--I received your Letter* by the last Packet three +or four days ago: this is the last day of answering, the monthly +Packet sails towards you again from Liverpool tomorrow morning; +and I am in great pressure with many writings, elsewhither and +thither: therefore I must be very brief. I have just written to +Mr. Hart of Philadelphia; his Draft (as I judge clearly by the +Banker's speech and silence) is accepted, all right; and in +fact, means _money_ at this time: for which I have written to +thank him heartily. Do you very heartily thank Mr. Furness for +me;--Furness and various friends, as Transatlantic matters now +are, must accept a _silent_ gratitude from me. The speech of men +and American hero-worshipers is grown such a babblement: in very +truth, _silence_ is the thing that chiefly has meaning,--there +or here.... + +--------- +* Missing +--------- + +To my very great astonishment, the Book _Cromwell_ proves popular +here; and there is to be another edition very soon. Edition +with improvements--for some fifty or so of new (not _all_ +insignificant) Letters have turned up, and I must try to do +something rational with them;--with which painful operation I am +again busy. It will make the two volumes about _equal_ perhaps, +--which will be one benefit! If any American possibility lie in +this, I will take better care of it.--Alas, I have not got one +word with you yet! Tell me of your Lectures;--of all things. +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + +We returned from Hampshire exactly a week ago; never passed +six so totally idle weeks in our lives.--Better in health a +little? Perhaps. + + + + +CVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 3 February, 1848 + +Dear Emerson,--One word to you before the Packet sail;--on +business of my own, once more; in such a state of _haste_ as +could hardly be greater. The Printers are upon me, and I have +not a moment. + +Contrary to all human expectation, this Book on Cromwell proves +salable to mankind here, and a second Edition is now going +forward with all speed. The publication of the First has brought +out from their recesses a _new_ heap of Cromwell Letters;--which +have been a huge embarrassment to me; for they are highly +unimportant for most part, and do not tend to alter or materially +modify anything. Some Fifty or Sixty new Letters in all (many of +them from Printed Books that had escaped me) the great majority, +with others yet that may come in future time, I determine to +print simply as an Appendix; but several too, I think about +twenty in all, are to be fitted into the Text, chiefly in the +early part of the First Volume, as tending to bring some matters +into greater clearness there. I am busy with that even now; +sunk deep into the Dust-abysses again!--Of course I have made +what provision I could for printing a Supplement, &c. to the +possessors of the First Edition: but I find this Second will be +the _Final_ standing Edition of the Book; decidedly preferable +to the First; not to be touched by me _again,_ except on +very good cause indeed. New letters, except they expressly +contradict me, shall go at once into the back apartment, or +Appendix, in future. + +The Printers have sent me some five or six sheets, they send me +hitherto a sheet daily; but perhaps there are not above three or +two in a perfect state: so I trouble you with none of them by +this Packet. But by next Packet (3d of March), unless I hear to +the contrary, I will send you all the Sheets that are ready; and +so by the following Packets, till we are out of it;--that you, on +the scene there, may do with them once for all whatsoever you +like. If _nothing_ can be done with them, believe me I shall be +very glad of that result. But if you can so much as oblige any +honest Bookseller of your or my acquaintance by the gift of them, +let it be done; let Pirates and ravenous Bipeds of Prey +be excluded from participating: that of itself will be a +comfortable and a proper thing!--You are hereby authorized to +promulgate in any way you please, That the Second Edition will be +augmented, corrected, as aforesaid; and that Mr. (Any Son of +Adam you please to name) is, so far as I have any voice in the +matter, appointed by me, to the exclusion of all and sundry +others on what pretext soever, to print and vend the same to my +American Friends. And so it stands; and the Sheets (probably +near thirty in number) will be out with the March Packet:-- +and if nothing can come of it, I for one shall be very glad! +The Book is to be in Three Volumes now; the first ends at +p. 403, Vol. I.; the third begins at p. 155, Vol. II., of +the present edition. + +What are you doing? Write to me: how the Lectures went, how all +things went and go! We are over head and ears in Anti-Corn-Law +here; the Aristocracy struck almost with a kind of horror at +sight of that terrible Millocracy, rising like a huge hideous +Frankenstein up in Lancashire,--seemingly with boundless ready- +money in its pocket, and a very fierce humor in its stomach! To +me it is as yet almost uglier than the Aristocracy; and I will +not fire guns when this small victory is gained; I will +recommend a day of Fasting rather, that such a victory required +such gaining. + +Adieu, my Friend. Is it likely we shall meet in "Oregon," think +you? That would be a beautiful affair, on the part of the most +enlightened Nation! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 3 March, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--I must write you a word before this Packet go, +tho' my haste is very great. I received your two Newspapers +(price only twopence); by the same Ship there came, and reached +me some days later, a Letter from Mr. Everett enclosing the +_Cromwell_ portions of the same printed-matter, clipt out by +scissors; written, it appeared, by Mr. Everett's nephew; some +of whose remarks, especially his wish that I might once be in New +England, and see people "praying," amused me much! The Cotton +Letter, &c., I have now got to the bottom of; Birch's copy is in +the Museum here,--a better edition than I had. Of "Levered" and +the other small American Documents--alas, I get cartloads of the +like or better tumbled down at my door, and my chief duty is to +front them resolutely with a _shovel._ "Ten thousand tons" is +but a small estimate for the quantity of loose and indurated +lumber I have had to send sounding, on each hand of me, down, +down to the eternal deeps, never to trouble _me_ more! The +jingle of it, as it did at last get under way, and go down, was +almost my one consolation in those unutterable operations.--I am +again over head and ears; but shall be out soon: never to +return more. + +By this Packet, according to volunteer contract, there goes out +by the favor of your Chapman a number of sheets, how many I do +not exactly know, of the New Edition: Chapman First and Chapman +Second (yours and mine) have undertaken to manage the affair for +this month and for the following months;--many thanks to them +both for taking it out of my hands. What you are to do with the +Article you already know. If no other customer present himself, +can you signify to Mr. Hart of Philadelphia that the sheets are +much at his service,--his conduct on another occasion having +given him right to such an acknowledgment from me? Or at any +rate, _you_ will want a new Copy of this Book; and can retain +the sheets for that object.--Enough of them. + +From Mr. Everett I learn that your Boston Lectures have been +attended with renown enough: when are the Lectures themselves to +get to print? I read, last night, an Essay on you, by a kind of +"Young Scotland," as we might call it, in an Edinburgh Magazine; +very fond of you, but shocked that you were Antichristian:-- +really not so bad. The stupidities of men go crossing one +another; and miles down, at the bottom of all, there is a little +veinlet of sense found running at last! + +If you see Mr. Everett, will you thank him for his kind +remembrance of me, till I find leisure (as I have vainly hoped +today to do) to thank him more in form. A dignified, compact +kind of man; whom I remember with real pleasure. + +Jargon abounds in our Newspapers and Parliament Houses at +present;--with which "the present Editor," and indeed I think the +Public at large, takes little concern, beyond the regret of being +_bored_ by it. The Corn-Laws are going very quietly the way of +all deliriums; and then there will at least be one delirium +less, and we shall start upon new ones. + +Not a word more today, but my blessings and regards. God be with +you and yours always. + +Ever your affectionate, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 April, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--Your two Letters* have both come to hand, the last +of them only three days ago. One word in answer before the +Packet sail; one very hasty word, rather than none. + +----------- +* Missing. +---------- + +You have made the best of Bargains for me; once again, with the +freest contempt of trouble on my behalf; which I cannot +sufficiently wonder at! Apparently it is a fixed-idea of yours +that the Bibliopolic Genus shall not cheat me; and you are +decided to make it good. Very well: let it be so, in as far as +the Fates will. + +Certainly I will conform in all points to this Wiley-and-Putnam +Treaty, and faithfully observe the same. The London Wileys have +not yet sent me any tidings; but when they do, I will say Your +terms on the other side of the sea are the Law to us, and it is a +finished thing.--No sheets, I think, will go by this mid-month +Packet, the Printer and Bookseller were bidden not mind that: +but by the Packet of May 3d, I hope the Second Volume will go +complete; and, if the Printers make speed, almost the whole +remainder may go by the June one. There is to be a "Supplement +to the First Edition," containing all the new matter that is +_separable:_ of this too the Wileys shall have their due Copy to +reprint: it is what I could do to keep my faith with purchasers +of the First Edition here; but, on the whole, there will be no +emulating of the Second Edition except by a reprint of the whole +of it; changes great and small have had to introduce themselves +everywhere, as these new Letters were woven in.--I hope before +May 3d I shall have ascertained whether it will not be the +simplest way (as with my present light it clearly appears) to +give the sheets direct to the Wiley and Putnam here, and let +_them_ send them? In any case, the cargo shall come one way +or other. + +Furthermore,--Yes, you shall have that sun-shadow, a +Daguerreotype likeness, as the sun shall please to paint it: +there has often been talk of getting me to that establishment, +but I never yet could go. If it be possible, we will have this +also ready for the 3d of May. _Provided_ you, as you promise, go +and do likewise! A strange moment that, when I look upon your +dead shadow again; instead of the living face, which remains +unchanged within me, enveloped in beautiful clouds, and emerging +now and then into strange clearness! Has your head grown +grayish? On me are "gray hairs here and there,"--and I do "know +it." I have lived half a century in this world, fifty years +complete on the 4th of December last: that is a solemn fact +for me! Few and evil have been the days of the years of +thy servant,--few for any good that was ever done in them. +_Ay de mi!_ + +Within late weeks I have got my Horse again; go riding through +the loud torrent of vehiculatory discords, till I get into the +fields, into the green lanes; which is intrinsically a great +medicine to me. Most comfortless riding it is, with a horse of +such _kangaroo_ disposition, till I do get to the sight of my old +ever-young green-mantled mother again; but for an hour there, it +is a real blessing to me. I have company sometimes, but +generally prefer solitude, and a dialogue with the trees and +clouds. Alas, the speech of men, especially the witty-speech of +men, is oftentimes afflictive to me: "in the wide Earth," I say +sometimes with a sigh, "there is none but Emerson that responds +to me with a voice wholly human!" All "Literature" too is become +I cannot tell you how contemptible to me. On the whole, one's +blessedness is to do as Oliver: Work while the sun is up; work +_well_ as if Eternities depended on it; and then sleep,--if +under the guano-mountains of Human Stupor, if handsomely +_forgotten_ all at once, that latter is the handsome thing! I +have often thought what W. Shakespeare would say, were he to sit +one night in a "Shakespeare Society," and listen to the empty +twaddle and other long-eared melody about him there!--Adieu, my +Friend. I fear I have forgotten many things: at all events, I +have forgotten the inexorable flight of the minutes, which are +numbered out to me at present. + +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + + I think I recognize the Inspector of Wild-beasts, in the +little Boston Newspaper you send!* A small hatchet-faced, gray- +eyed, good-humored Inspector, who came with a Translated +Lafontaine; and took his survey not without satisfaction? +Comfortable too how rapidly he fathomed the animal, having just +poked him up a little. _Ach Gott!_ Man is forever interesting +to men;--and all men, even Hatchet-faces, are globular and complete! + +--------- +* This probably refers to a letter of Mr. Elizur Wright's, +describing a visit to Carlyle. +--------- + + + + +CIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 30 April, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--Here is the _Photograph_ going off for you by +Bookseller Munroe of Boston; the Sheets of _Cromwell,_ all the +second and part of the last volume, are to go direct to New York: +both Parcels by the Putnam conveyance. For Putnam has been here +since I wrote, making large confirmations of what you conveyed to +me; and large Proposals of an ulterior scope,--which will +involve you in new trouble for me. But it is trouble you will +not grudge, inasmuch as it promises to have some issue of moment; +at all events the negotiation is laid entirely into your hands: +therefore I must with all despatch explain to you the essentials +of it, that you may know what Wiley says when he writes to you +from New York. + +Mr. Putnam, really a very intelligent, modest, and reputable- +looking little fellow, got at last to sight of me about a week +ago;--explained with much earnestness how the whole origin of the +mistake about the First Edition of _Cromwell_ had lain with +Chapman, my own Bookseller (which in fact I had already perceived +to be the case); and farther set forth, what was much more +important, that he and his Partner were, and had been, ready and +desirous to _make good_ said mistake, in the amplest, most +satisfactory manner,--by the ready method of paying me _now_ +ten percent on the selling-price of all the copies of _Cromwell_ +sent into the market by them; and had (as I knew already) +covenanted with you to do so, in a clear, _bona-fide,_ and to +you satisfactory manner, in regard to that First Edition: in +consequence of which you had made a bargain with them of like +tenor in regard to the Second. To all which I could only answer, +that such conduct was that of men of honor, and would, in all +manner of respects, be satisfactory to me. Wherefore the new +Sheets of _Cromwell_ should now go by _his_ Package direct to New +York, and the other little Parcel for you he could send to +Munroe:--that as one consequence? "Yes, surely," intimated he; +but there were other consequences, of more moment, behind that. + +Namely, that they wanted (the Wiley & Putnam house did) to +publish certain other Books of mine, the List of which I do not +now recollect; under similar conditions: viz. that I was to +certify, in a line or two prefixable to each Book, that I had +read it over in preparation for their Printer, and did authorize +them to print and sell it;--in return for which Ten percent on +the sale-price (and all manner of facilities, volunteered to +convince even Clark of Boston, the Lynx-eyed Friend now busy for +me looking through millstones, that all was straight, and said +Ten percent actually paid on every copy sold); This was Putnam's +Offer, stated with all transparency, and in a way not to be +misunderstood by either of us. + +To which I answered that the terms seemed clear and square and +every way good, and such as I could comply with heartily,--so far +as I was at liberty, but not farther. Not farther: for example, +there was Hart of Philadelphia (I think the Wileys do not want +the _Miscellanies_), there were Munroe, Little and Brown, &c.;-- +in short, there was R.W. Emerson, who knew in all ways how far I +was free and not free, and who would take care of my integrity +and interest at once, and do what was just and prudent; and to +_him_ I would refer the whole question, and whatever he engaged +for, that and no other than that I would do. So that you see how +it is, and what a coil you have again got into! Mr. Putnam would +have had some "Letter," some "exchange of Letters," to the effect +above-stated: but I answered, "It was better we did not write at +all till the matter was clear and liquid with you, and then we +could very swiftly write,--and act. I would apprise you how the +matter stood, and expect your answer, and bid you covenant with +Mr. Wiley what you found good, prompt I to fulfil whatever _you_ +undertook for me."--This _is_ a true picture of the affair, the +very truest I can write in haste; and so I leave it with you-- +_Ach Gott!_ + +If your Photograph succeed as well as mine, I shall be almost +_tragically_ glad of it. This of me is far beyond all pictures; +really very like: I got Laurence the Painter to go with me, and +he would not let the people off till they had actually made a +likeness. My Wife has got another, which she asserts to be much +"more amiable-looking," and even liker!* O my Friend, it is a +strange Phantasmagory of a Fact, this huge, tremendous World of +ours, Life of ours! Do you bethink you of Craigenputtock, and +the still evening there? I could burst into tears, if I had that +habit: but it is of no use. The Cromwell business will be ended +about the end of May,--I do hope! + +You say not a word of your own affairs: I have vaguely been +taught to look for some Book shortly;--what of it? We are well, +or tolerably well, and the summer is come: adieu. Blessings on +you and yours. + + --T.C. + +---------- +* The engraved portrait in the first volume of this +Correspondence is from a photograph taken from this daguerrotype. +---------- + + + + +CX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 14 May, 1846 + +Dear Friend,--I daily expect the picture, and wonder--so long as +I have wished it--I had never asked it before. I was in Boston +the other day, and went to the best reputed Daguerreotypist, but +though I brought home three transcripts of my face, the house- +mates voted them rueful, supremely ridiculous. I must sit again; +or, as true Elizabeth Hoar said, I must not sit again, not being +of the right complexion which Daguerre and iodine delight in. I +am minded to try once more, and if the sun will not take me, I +must sit to a good crayon sketcher, Mr. Cheney, and send you +his draught.... + +Good rides to you and the longest escapes from London streets. I +too have a new plaything, the best I ever had,--a wood-lot. Last +fall I bought a piece of more than forty acres, on the border of +a little lake half a mile wide and more, called Walden Pond,--a +place to which my feet have for years been accustomed to bring me +once or twice a week at all seasons. My lot to be sure is on the +further side of the water, not so familiar to me as the nearer +shore. Some of the wood is an old growth, but most of it has +been cut off within twenty years and is growing thriftily. In +these May days, when maples, poplars, oaks, birches, walnut, and +pine are in their spring glory, I go thither every afternoon, and +cut with my hatchet an Indian path through the thicket all along +the bold shore, and open the finest pictures. + +My two little girls know the road now, though it is nearly two +miles from my house, and find their way to the spring at the foot +of a pine grove, and with some awe to the ruins of a village of +shanties, all overgrown with mullein, which the Irish who built +the railroad left behind them. At a good distance in from the +shore the land rises to a rocky head, perhaps sixty feet above +the water. Thereon I think to place a hut; perhaps it will have +two stories and be a petty tower, looking out to Monadnoc and +other New Hampshire Mountains. There I hope to go with book and +pen when good hours come. I shall think there, a fortnight might +bring you from London to Walden Pond.--Life wears on, and do you +say the gray hairs appear? Few can so well afford them. The +black have not hung over a vacant brain, as England and America +know; nor, white or black, will it give itself any Sabbath for +many a day henceforward, as I believe. What have we to do with +old age? Our existence looks to me more than ever initial. We +have come to see the ground and look up materials and tools. The +men who have any positive quality are a flying advance party for +reconnoitring. We shall yet have a right work, and kings for +competitors. With ever affectionate remembrance to your wife, +your friend, + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 May, 1846 + +My Dear Friend,--It is late at night and I have postponed writing +not knowing but that my parcel would be ready to go,--and now a +public meeting and the speech of a rarely honest and eloquent man +have left me but a span of time for the morning's messenger. + +The photograph came safely, to my thorough content. I have what +I have wished. This head is to me out of comparison more +satisfying than any picture. I confirm my recollections and I +make new observations; it is life to life. Thanks to the Sun. +This artist remembers what every other forgets to report, and +what I wish to know, the true sculpture of the features, the +angles, the special organism, the rooting of the hair, the form +and the placing of the head. I am accustomed to expect of the +English a securing of the essentials in their work, and the sun +does that, and you have done it in this portrait, which gives me +much to think and feel.* I was instantly stirred to an emulation +of your love and punctuality, and, last Monday, which was my +forty-third birthday, I went to a new Daguerreotypist, who took +much pains to make his picture right. I brought home three +shadows not agreeable to my own eyes. The machine has a bad +effect on me. My wife protests against the imprints as +slanderous. My friends say they look ten years older, and, as I +think, with the air of a decayed gentleman touched with his first +paralysis. However I got yesterday a trusty vote or two for +sending one of them to you, on the ground that I am not likely to +get a better. But it now seems probable that it will not get +cased and into the hands of Harnden in time for the steamer +tomorrow. It will then go by that of the 16th. + +--------- +* From Emerson's Diary, May 23, 1846:--"In Carlyle's head +(photograph), which came last night, how much appears! How +unattainable this truth to any painter! Here have I the +inevitable traits which the sun forgets not to copy, and which I +thirst to see, but which no painter remembers to give me. Here +have I the exact sculpture, the form of the head, the rooting of +the hair, thickness of the lips, the man that God made. And all +the Laurences and D'Orsays now serve me well as illustration. I +have the form and organism, and can better spare the expression +and color. What would I not give for a head of Shakespeare by +the same artist? of Plato? of Demosthenes? Here I have the +jutting brow, and the excellent shape of the head. And here the +organism of the eye full of England, the valid eye, in which I +see the strong executive talent which has made his thought +available to the nations, whilst others as intellectual as he are +pale and powerless. The photograph comes dated 25 April, 1846, +and he writes, 'I am fifty years old."' +--------- + +I am heartily glad that you are in direct communication with +these really energetic booksellers, Wiley and Putnam. I +understood from Wiley's letter to me, weeks ago, that their +ambition was not less than to have a monopoly of your books. I +answered, it is very desirable for us too; saving always the +rights of Mr. Hart in Philadelphia.--I told him you had no +interest in Munroe's _Sartor,_ which from the first was his own +adventure, and Little and Brown had never reprinted _Past and +Present_ or _Chartism._ The _French Revolution, Past and +Present, Chartism,_ and the _Sartor,_ I see no reason why they +should not have. Munroe and L. & B. have no real claims, and I +will speak to them. But there is one good particular in Putnam's +proffer to you, which Wiley has not established in his (first and +last) agreement with me, namely, that you shall have an interest +in what is already sold of their first edition of _Cromwell._ By +all means close with Putnam of the good mind, exempting only +Hart's interest. I have no recent correspondence with Wiley and +Putnam. And I greatly prefer that they should deal directly +with you. Yet it were best to leave an American reference open +for audit and umpirage to the stanch E.P. Clark of the New +England Bank. + +Ever yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 June, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--I have had two letters of yours, the last of them +(31st May) only two days, and have seen a third written to Wiley +of New York. Yesterday Putnam was here, and we made our +bargain,--and are to have it signed this day at his Shop: two +copies, one of which I mean to insert along with this, and give +up to your or E.P. Clark's keeping. For, as you will see, I have +appointed Clark my representative, economic plenipotentiary and +factotum, if he will consent to act in that sublime capacity,-- +subject always to your advice, to your control in all _ultra_- +economic respects, of which you alone are cognizant of the +circumstances or competent to give a judgment. Pray explain this +with all lucidity to Mr. Clark: and endeavor to impress upon him +that it is (to all appearance) a real affair of business we are +now engaged in; that I would have him satisfy his own sharp eyes +(by such methods as he finds convenient and sufficient, by +examination at New York or how he can) that the conditions of +this bargain _are_ fairly complied with by the New York +Booksellers,--who promise "every facility for ascertaining _how +many_ copies are printed," &c., &c.; and profess to be of the +integrity of Israelites indeed, in all respects whatever! If so, +it may be really useful to us. And I would have Mr. Clark, if he +will allow me to look upon him as my _man of business_ in this +affair, take reasonable pains, be at any reasonable expense, &c. +(by himself or by deputy) to ascertain that it is so in very +fact! In that case, if something come of it, we shall get the +something and be thankful; if nothing come of it, we shall have +the pleasure of caring nothing about it.--I have given Putnam two +Books (_Heroes_ and _Sartor_) ready, corrected; the others I +think will follow in the course of next month;--F. _Revolution_ +waits only for an Index which my man is now busy with. The +_Cromwell,_ Supplement and all, he has now got,--published two +days ago, after sorrowful delays. Your Copy will be ready _this +afternoon,_--too late, I fear, by just one day: it will lie, in +that case, for a fortnight, and then come. Wiley will find that +he has no resource but to reprint the Book; he will reprint the +Supplement too, in justice to former purchasers; but this is the +_final_ form of the Book, this second edition; and to this all +readers of it will come at last. + +We expect the Daguerreotype by next Steamer; but you take good +care not to prepossess us on its behalf! In fact, I believe, the +only satisfactory course will be to get a Sketch done too; if +you have any Painter that can manage it tolerably, pray set about +that, as the true solution of the business--out of the two +together we shall make a likeness for ourselves that will do. +Let the Lady Wife be satisfied with it; then we shall pronounce +it genuine!-- + +I envy you your forest-work, your summer umbrages, and clear +silent lakes. The weather here is getting insupportable to us +for heat. Indeed, if rain do not come within two weeks, I +believe we must wind up our affairs, and make for some shady +place direct:--Scotland is perhaps likeliest; but nothing yet is +fixed: you shall duly hear.--Directly after this, I set off for +Putnam's in Waterloo Place; sign his paper there; stick one +copy under a cover for you, and despatch.--Send me word about all +that you are doing and thinking. Be busy, be still and happy. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 15 July, 1846 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I received by the last steamer your letter with +the copy of the covenant with Wiley and Putnam, which seems +unexceptionable. I like the English side of those men very well; +that is, Putnam seems eager to stand well and rightly with his +fellow-men. Wiley at New York it was who provoked me, last +winter, to write him an angry letter when he declared his +intention to reprint our new matter without paying for it. When +he thought better of it, and came to terms, I had not got so far +as to be affectionate, and have never yet resumed the +correspondence I had with him a year ago, about my own books. I +hope you found my letter to them, though I do not remember which, +properly cross. I believe I only enumerated difficulties. I +have talked with Little and Brown about their editions of +_Chartism,_ and _Past and Present;_ they have made no new sales +of the books since they were printed on by the pirates, and say +that the books lie still on their shelves, as also do a few +copies of the London and Boston edition of _French Revolution._ +I prayed them immediately to dispose of these things by auction, +or at their trade sales, at whatever prices would sell them, and +leave the market open for W. & P.; which they promise to do. + +To Munroe I went, and learn that he has bought the stereotype- +plates of the New York pirate edition of _Sartor,_ and means to +print it immediately. He is willing to stop if W. & P. will buy +of him his plates at their cost. I wrote so to them, but they +say no. And I have not spoken again with Munroe. I was in town +yesterday, and carried the copy of the Covenant to E.P. Clark, +and read him your message. His Bank occupies him entirely just +now, for his President is gone to Europe, and Clark's duties are +the more onerous. But finding that the new responsibilities +delegated to him are light and tolerable, and, at any rate, +involve no retrospection, he very cheerfully signified his +readiness to serve you, and I graciously forbore all allusions to +my heap of booksellers' accounts which he has had in keeping now +--for years, I believe. He told me that he hopes at no distant +day to have a house of his own,--he and his wife are always at +board,--and, whenever that happens, he intends to devote a +chamber in it to his "Illustrations of Mr. Carlyle's Writings," +which, I believe, I have told you before, are a very large and +extraordinary collection of prints, pictures, books, and +manuscripts. I sent you the promised Daguerrotype with all +unwillingness, by the steamer, I think of 16 June. On 1 August, +Margaret Fuller goes to England and the Continent; and I shall +not fail to write to you by her, and you must not fail to give a +good and faithful interview to this wise, sincere, accomplished, +and most entertaining of women. I wish to bespeak Jane Carlyle's +friendliest ear to one of the noblest of women. We shall send +you no other such. + +I was lately inquired of again by an agent of a huge Boston +society of young men, whether Mr. Carlyle would not come to +America and read Lectures, on some terms which they could +propose. I advised them to make him an offer, and a better one +than they had in view. Joy and Peace to you in your new freedom. + + --R.W.E. + + + +CXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 17 July, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--Since I wrote last to you, I think, with the +Wiley-and-Putnam Covenant enclosed,--the Photograph, after some +days of loitering at the Liverpool Custom-house, came safe to +hand. Many thanks to you for this punctuality: this poor +Shadow, it is all you could do at present in that matter! +But it must not rest there, no. This Image is altogether +unsatisfactory, illusive, and even in some measure tragical +to me! First of all, it is a bad Photograph; no _eyes_ +discernible, at least one of the eyes not, except in rare +favorable lights then, alas, Time itself and Oblivion must have +been busy. I could not at first, nor can I yet with perfect +decisiveness, bring out any feature completely recalling to +me the old Emerson, that lighted on us from the Blue, at +Craigenputtock, long ago,--_eheu!_ Here is a genial, smiling, +energetic face, full of sunny strength, intelligence, integrity, +good humor; but it lies imprisoned in baleful shades, as of the +valley of Death; seems smiling on me as if in mockery. "Dost +know me, friend? I am dead, thou seest, and distant, and forever +hidden from thee;--I belong already to the Eternities, and thou +recognizest me not!" On the whole, it is the strangest feeling I +have:--and practically the thing will be, that you get us by the +earliest opportunity some _living_ pictorial sketch, chalk- +drawing or the like, from a trustworthy hand; and send _it_ +hither to represent you. Out of the two I shall compile for +myself a likeness by degrees: but as for this present, we cannot +put up with it at all; to my Wife and me, and to sundry other +parties far and near that have interest in it, there is no +satisfaction in this. So there will be nothing for you but +compliance, by the first fair chance you have: furthermore, I +bargain that the _Lady_ Emerson have, within reasonable limits, a +royal veto in the business (not absolute, if that threaten +extinction to the enterprise, but absolute within the limits of +possibility); and that she take our case in hand, and graciously +consider what can and shall be done. That will answer, I think. + +Of late weeks I have been either idle, or sunk in the +sorrowfulest cobbling of old shoes again; sorrowfully reading +over old Books for the Putnams and Chapmans, namely. It is +really painful, looking in one's own old face; said "old face" +no longer a thing extant now!--Happily I have at last finished +it; the whole Lumber-troop with clothes duly brushed (_French +Revolution_ has even got an Index too) travels to New York in the +Steamer that brings you this. _Quod faustum sit:_--or indeed I +do not much care whether it be faustum or not; I grow to care +about an astonishingly small number of things as times turn with +me! Man, all men seem radically _dumb;_ jabbering mere jargons +and noises from the teeth outwards; the inner meaning of them,-- +of them and of me, poor devils,--remaining shut, buried forever. +If almost all Books were burnt (my own laid next the coal), I +sometimes in my spleen feel as if it really would be better with +us! Certainly could one generation of men be forced to live +without rhetoric, babblement, hearsay, in short with the tongue +well cut out of them altogether,--their fortunate successors +would find a most improved world to start upon! For Cant does +lie piled on us, high as the zenith; an Augean Stable with the +poisonous confusion piled so high: which, simply if there once +could be nothing said, would mostly dwindle like summer snow +gradually about its business, and leave us free to use our eyes +again! When I see painful Professors of Greek, poring in their +sumptuous Oxfords over dead _Greek_ for a thousand years or more, +and leaving live _English_ all the while to develop itself under +charge of Pickwicks and Sam Wellers, as if it were nothing and +the other were all things: this, and the like of it everywhere, +fills me with reflections! Good Heavens, will the people not +come out of their wretched Old-Clothes Monmouth-Streets, Hebrew +and other; but lie there dying of the basest pestilence,--dying +and as good as dead! On the whole, I am very weary of most +"Literature":--and indeed, in very sorrowful, abstruse humor +otherwise at present. + +For remedy to which I am, in these very hours, preparing for a +sally into the green Country and deep silence; I know not +altogether how or whitherward as yet; only that I must tend +towards Lancashire; towards Scotland at last. My Wife already +waits me in Lancashire; went off, in rather poor case, much +burnt by the hot Town, some ten days ago; and does not yet +report much improvement. I will write to you somewhere in my +wanderings. The address, "Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, N.B.," if you +chance to write directly or soon after this arrives, will, +likely, be the shortest: at any rate, that, or "Cheyne Row" +either, is always sure enough to find me in a day or two +after trying. + +By a kind of accident I have fallen considerably into American +History in these days; and am even looking out for American +Geography to help me. Jared Sparks, Marshall, &c. are hickory +and buckskin; but I do catch a credible trait of human life from +them here and there; Michelet's genial champagne _froth,_--alas, +I could find no fact in it that would stand handling; and so +have broken down in the middle of _La France,_ and run over to +hickory and Jared for shelter! Do you know Beriah Green?* A +body of Albany newspapers represent to me the people quarreling +in my name, in a very vague manner, as to the propriety of being +"governed," and Beriah's is the only rational voice among them. +Farewell, dear Friend. Speedy news of you! + + --T. Carlyle + + +--------- +* The Reverend Beriah Green, President for some years of Oneida +Institute, a manual-labor school at Whitesboro, N.Y. He was an +active reformer, and a leading member of the National Convention +which met in Philadelphia, December 4th, 1833, to form the +American Antislavery Society. He died in 1874, seventy-nine +years old. +--------- + + + + +CXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 July, 1846 + +My Dear Friend,--The new edition of _Cromwell_ in its perfect +form and in excellent dress, and the copy of the Appendix, came +munificently safe by the last steamer. When thought is best, +then is there most,--is a faith of which you alone among writing +men at this day will give me experience. If it is the right +frankincense and sandal-wood, it is so good and heavenly to give +me a basketful and not a pinch. I read proudly, a little at a +time, and have not yet got through the new matter. But I think +neither the new letters nor the commentary could be spared. +Wiley and Putnam shall do what they can, and we will see if +New England will not come to reckon this the best chapter in +her Pentateuch. + +I send this letter by Margaret Fuller, of whose approach I +believe I wrote you some word. There is no foretelling how you +visited and crowded English will like our few educated men or +women, and in your learned populace my luminaries may easily be +overlooked. But of all the travelers whom you have so kindly +received from me, I think of none, since Alcott went to England, +whom I so much desired that you should see and like, as this dear +old friend of mine. For two years now I have scarcely seen her, +as she has been at New York, engaged by Horace Greeley as a +literary editor of his _Tribune_ newspaper. This employment was +made acceptable to her by good pay, great local and personal +conveniences of all kinds, and unbounded confidence and respect +from Greeley himself, and all other parties connected with this +influential journal (of 30,000 subscribers, I believe). And +Margaret Fuller's work as critic of all new books, critic of the +drama, of music, and good arts in New York, has been honorable to +her. Still this employment is not satisfactory to me. She is +full of all nobleness, and with the generosity native to her mind +and character appears to me an exotic in New England, a foreigner +from some more sultry and expansive climate. She is, I suppose, +the earliest reader and lover of Goethe in this Country, and +nobody here knows him so well. Her love too of whatever is good +in French, and specially in Italian genius, give her the best +title to travel. In short, she is our citizen of the world by +quite special diploma. And I am heartily glad that she has an +opportunity of going abroad that pleases her. + +Mr. Spring, a merchant of great moral merits, (and, as I am +informed, an assiduous reader of your books,) has grown rich, and +resolves to see the world with his wife and son, and has wisely +invited Miss Fuller to show it to him. Now, in the first place, +I wish you to see Margaret when you are in special good humor, +and have an hour of boundless leisure. And I entreat Jane +Carlyle to abet and exalt and secure this satisfaction to me. I +need not, and yet perhaps I need say, that M.F. is the safest of +all possible persons who ever took pen in hand. Prince +Metternich's closet not closer or half so honorable. In the next +place, I should be glad if you can easily manage to show her the +faces of Tennyson and of Browning. She has a sort of right to +them both, not only because she likes their poetry, but because +she has made their merits widely known among our young people. +And be it known to my friend Jane Carlyle, whom, if I cannot see, +I delight to name, that her visitor is an immense favorite in the +parlor, as well as in the library, in all good houses where she +is known. And so I commend her to you. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 December, 1846 + +Dear Emerson,--This is the 18th of the month, and it is a +frightful length of time, I know not how long, since I wrote to +you,--sinner that I am! Truly we are in no case for paying debts +at present, being all sick more or less, from the hard cold +weather, and in a state of great temporary puddle but, as the +adage says, "one should own debt, and crave days";--therefore +accept a word from me, such as it may be. + +I went, as usual, to the North Country in the Autumn; passed +some two extremely disconsolate months,--for all things distress +a wretched thin-skinned creature like me,--in that old region, +which is at once an Earth and a Hades to me, an unutterable +place, now that I have become mostly a _ghost_ there! I saw +Ireland too on my return, saw black potato-fields, a ragged noisy +population, that has long in a headlong baleful manner followed +the _Devil's_ leading, listened namely to blustering shallow- +violent Impostors and Children of Darkness, saying, "Yes, we know +_you,_ you are Children of Light!"--and so has fallen all out at +elbows in body and in soul; and now having lost its _potatoes_ +is come as it were to a crisis; all its windy nonsense cracking +suddenly to pieces under its feet: a very pregnant crisis +indeed! A country cast suddenly into the melting-pot,--say into +the Medea's-Caldron; to be boiled into horrid _dissolution;_ +whether into new _youth,_ into sound healthy life, or into +eternal death and annihilation, one does not yet know! Daniel +O'Connell stood bodily before me, in his green Mullaghmart Cap; +haranguing his retinue of Dupables: certainly the most _sordid_ +Humbug I have ever seen in this world; the emblem to me, he and +his talk and the worship and credence it found, of all the +miseries that can befall a Nation. I also conversed with Young +Ireland in a confidential manner; for Young Ireland, really +meaning what it says, is worth a little talk: the Heroism and +Patriotism of a new generation; welling fresh and new from the +breasts of Nature; and already poisoned by O'Connellism and the +_Old_ Irish atmosphere of bluster, falsity, fatuity, into one +knows not what. Very sad to see. On the whole, no man ought, +for any cause, to speak lies, or have anything to do with _lies;_ +but either hold his tongue, or speak a bit of the truth: that is +the meaning of a _tongue,_ people used to know!--Ireland was not +the place to console my sorrows. I returned home very sad out of +Ireland;--and indeed have remained one of the saddest, idlest, +most useless of Adam's sons ever since; and do still remain so. +I care not to _write_ anything more,--so it seems to me at +present. I am in my vacant interlunar cave (I suppose that is +the truth);--and I ought to wrap my mantle round me, and lie, if +dark, _silent_ also. But, alas, I have wasted almost all your +poor sheet first!-- + +Miss Fuller came duly as you announced; was welcomed for your +sake and her own. A high-soaring, clear, enthusiast soul; in +whose speech there is much of all that one wants to find in +speech. A sharp, subtle intellect too; and less of that +shoreless Asiatic dreaminess than I have sometimes met with in +her writings. We liked one another very well, I think, and the +Springs too were favorites. But, on the whole, it could not be +concealed, least of all from the sharp female intellect, that +this Carlyle was a dreadfully heterodox, not to say a dreadfully +savage fellow, at heart; believing no syllable of all that +Gospel of Fraternity, Benevolence, and _new_ Heaven-on-Earth, +preached forth by all manner of "advanced" creatures, from George +Sand to Elihu Burritt, in these days; that in fact the said +Carlyle not only disbelieved all that, but treated it as +poisonous cant,--_sweetness_ of sugar-of-lead,--a detestable +_phosphorescence_ from the dead body of a Christianity, that +would not admit itself to be dead, and lie buried with all its +unspeakable putrescences, as a venerable dead one ought!--Surely +detestable enough.--To all which Margaret listened with much good +nature; though of course with sad reflections not a few.*--She +is coming back to us, she promises. Her dialect is very +vernacular,--extremely exotic in the London climate. If she do +not gravitate too irresistibly towards that class of New-Era +people (which includes whatsoever we have of prurient, esurient, +morbid, flimsy, and in fact pitiable and unprofitable, and is at +a sad discount among men of sense), she may get into good tracks +of inquiry and connection here, and be very useful to herself and +others. I could not show her Alfred (he has been here since) nor +Landor: but surely if I can I will,--that or a hundred times as +much as that,--when she returns.--They tell me you are about +collecting your Poems. Well, though I do not approve of rhyme at +all, yet it is impossible Emerson in rhyme or prose can put down +any thought that was in his heart but I should wish to get into +mine. So let me have the Book as fast as may be. And do others +like it if you will take circumbendibuses for sound's sake! And +excuse the Critic who seems to you so unmusical; and say, It is +the nature of beast! Adieu, dear Friend: write to me, write +to me. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +-------- +* Miss Fullers impressions of Carlyle, much to this effect, may +be found in the "Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli," Boston, +1852, Vol. II. pp. 184-190. +--------- + + + + +CXVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 January, 1847 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Your letter came with a blessing last week. I +had already learned from Margaret Fuller, at Paris, that you had +been very good and gentle to her;--brilliant and prevailing, of +course, but, I inferred, had actually restrained the volleys and +modulated the thunder, out of true courtesy and goodness of +nature, which was worthy of all praise in a spoiled conqueror at +this time of day. Especially, too, she expressed a true +recognition and love of Jane Carlyle; and thus her visit proved +a solid satisfaction; to me, also, who think that few people +have so well earned their pleasures as she. + +She wrote me a long letter; she has been very happy in England, +and her time and strength fully employed. Her description of you +and your discourse (which I read with lively curiosity also) was +the best I have had on that subject. + +I tried hard to write you by the December steamer, to tell you +how forward was my book of Poems; but a little affair makes me +much writing. I chanced to have three or four items of business +to despatch, when the steamer was ready to go, and you escaped +hearing of them. I am the trustee of Charles Lane, who came out +here with Alcott and bought land, which, though sold, is not +paid for. + +Somebody or somebodies in Liverpool and Manchester* have proposed +once or twice, with more or less specification, that I should +come to those cities to lecture. And who knows but I may come +one day? Steam is strong, and Liverpool is near. I should +find my account in the strong inducement of a new audience to +finish pieces which have lain waiting with little hope for months +or years. + +---------- +* Mr. Alexander Ireland, who had made the acquaintance of Emerson +at Edinburgh, in 1833, was his Manchester correspondent. His +memorial volume on Emerson contains an interesting record of +their relations. +---------- + +Ah then, if I dared, I should be well content to add some golden +hours to my life in seeing you, now all full-grown and +acknowledged amidst your own people,--to hear and to speak is so +little yet so much. But life is dangerous and delicate. I +should like to see your solid England. The map of Britain is +good reading for me. Then I have a very ignorant love of +pictures, and a curiosity about the Greek statues and stumps in +the British Museum. So beware of me, for on that distant day +when I get ready I shall come. + +Long before this time you ought to have received from John +Chapman a copy of Emerson's Poems, so called, which he was +directed to send you. Poor man, you need not open them. I know +all you can say. I printed them, not because I was deceived into +a belief that they were poems, but because of the softness or +hardness of heart of many friends here who have made it a point +to have them circulated.* Once having set out to print, I obeyed +the solicitations of John Chapman, of an ill-omened street in +London, to send him the book in manuscript, for the better +securing of copyright. In printing them here I have corrected +the most unpardonable negligences, which negligences must be all +stereotyped under his fair London covers and gilt paper to the +eyes of any curious London reader; from which recollection I +strive to turn away. + +--------- +* In the rough draft the following sentence comes in here "I +reckon myself a good beginning of a poet, very urgent and decided +in my bent, and in some coming millennium I shall yet sing." +--------- + +Little and Brown have just rendered me an account, by which it +appears that we are not quite so well off as was thought last +summer, when they said they had sold at auction the balance of +your books which had been lying unsold. It seems now that the +books supposed to be sold were not all taken, and are returned to +them; one hundred _Chartism,_ sixty-three _Past and Present._ +Yet we are to have some eighty-three dollars ($83.68), which you +shall probably have by the next steamer. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 2 March, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--The Steamer goes tomorrow; I must, though in a +very dim condition, have a little word for you conveyed by it. +In the miscellaneous maw of that strange Steamer shall lie, among +other things, a friendly _word!_ + +Your very kind Letter lay waiting me here, some ten days ago; +doubly welcome, after so long a silence. We had been in +Hampshire, with the Barings, where we were last year;--some four +weeks or more; totally idle: our winter had been, and indeed +still is, unusually severe; my Wife's health in consequence was +sadly deranged; but this idleness, these Isle-of-Wight sea- +breezes, have brought matters well round again; so we cannot +grudge the visit or the idleness, which otherwise too might have +its uses. Alas, at this time my normal state is to be altogether +_idle,_ to look out upon a very lonely universe, full of grim +sorrow, full of splendor too; and not to know at all, for the +moment, on what side I am to attack it again!--I read your Book +of Poems all faithfully, at Bay House (our Hampshire quarters); +where the obstinate people,--with whom you are otherwise, in +prose, a first favorite,--foolishly _refused_ to let me read +aloud; foolishly, for I would have made it mostly all plain by +commentary:--so I had to read for myself; and can say, in spite +of my hard-heartedness, I did gain, though under impediments, a +real satisfaction and some tone of the Eternal Melodies sounding, +afar off, ever and anon, in my ear! This is fact; a truth in +Natural History; from which you are welcome to draw inferences. +A grand View of the Universe, everywhere the sound (unhappily +_far of,_ as it were) of a valiant, genuine Human Soul: this, +even under rhyme, is a satisfaction worth some struggling for. +But indeed you are very perverse; and through this perplexed +undiaphanous element, you do not fall on me like radiant summer +rainbows, like floods of sunlight, but with thin piercing +radiances which affect me like the light of the _stars._ It is +so: I wish you would become _concrete,_ and write in prose the +straightest way; but under any form I must put up with you; +that is my lot.--Chapman's edition, as you probably know, is very +beautiful. I believe there are enough of ardent silent seekers +in England to buy up this edition from him, and resolutely study +the same: as for the review multitude, they dare not exactly +call it "unintelligible moonshine," and so will probably hold +their tongue. It is my fixed opinion that we are all at sea as +to what is called Poetry, Art, &c., in these times; laboring +under a dreadful incubus of _Tradition,_ and mere "Cant heaped +balefully on us up to the very Zenith," as men, in nearly all +other provinces of their Life, except perhaps the railway +province, do now labor and stagger;--in a word, that Goethe-and- +Schiller's _"Kunst"_ has far more brotherhood with Pusey-and- +Newman's _Shovelhattery,_ and other the like deplorable +phenomena, than it is in the least aware of! I beg you take +warning: I am more serious in this than you suppose. But no, +you will not; you whistle lightly over my prophecies, and go +your own stiff-necked road. Unfortunate man!-- + +I had read in the Newspapers, and even heard in speech from +Manchester people, that you were certainly coming this very +summer to lecture among us: but now it seems, in your Letter, +all postponed into the vague again. I do not personally know +your Manchester negotiators, but I know in general that they are +men of respectability, insight, and activity; much connected +with the lecturing department, which is a very growing one, +especially in Lancashire, at present;--men likely, for the rest, +to _fulfil_ whatsoever they may become engaged for to you. My +own ignorant though confident guess, moreover, is, that you +would, in all senses of the word, _succeed_ there; I think, also +rather confidently, we could promise you an audience of British +aristocracy in London here,--and of British commonalty all manner +of audiences that you liked to stoop to. I heard an ignorant +blockhead (or mainly so) called --- bow-wowing here, some months +ago, to an audience of several thousands, in the City, one +evening,--upon Universal Peace, or some other field of +balderdash; which the poor people seemed very patient of. In a +word, I do not see what is to hinder you to come whenever you can +resolve upon it. The adventure is perfectly promising: an +adventure familiar to you withal; for Lecturing is with us +fundamentally just what it is with you: Much prurient curiosity, +with some ingenuous love of wisdom, an element of real reverence +for the same: everywhere a perfect openness to any man speaking +in any measure things manful. Come, therefore; gird yourself +together, and come. With little or no peradventure, you will +realize what your modest hope is, and more;--and I, for my share +of it, shall see you once again under this Sun! O Heavens, there +_might_ be some good in that! Nay, if you will travel like a +private quiet person, who knows but I, the most unlocomotive of +mortals, might be able to escort you up and down a little; to +look at many a thing along with you, and even to open my long- +closed heart and speak about the same?--There is a spare-room +always in this House for you,--in this heart, in these two +hearts, the like: bid me hope in this enterprise, in all manner +of ways where I can; and on the whole, get it rightly put +together, and embark on it, and arrive! + +The good Miss Fuller has painted us all _en beau,_ and your +smiling imagination has added new colors. We have not a +triumphant life here; very far indeed from that, _ach Gott!_--as +you shall see. But Margaret is an excellent soul: in real +regard with both of us here. Since she went, I have been reading +some of her Papers in a new Book we have got: greatly superior +to all I knew before; in fact the undeniable utterances (now +first undeniable to me) of a true heroic mind;--altogether +unique, so far as I know, among the Writing Women of this +generation; rare enough too, God knows, among the writing Men. +She is very narrow, sometimes; but she is truly high: honor to +Margaret, and more and more good-speed to her.--Adieu dear +Emerson. I am ever yours, + + --T.C. + + + +CXIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 March, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--Yesterday morning, setting out to breakfast with +Richard Milnes (Milnes's breakfast is a thing you will yet have +to experience) I met, by the sunny shore of the Thames, a +benevolent Son of Adam in blue coat and red collar, who thrust +into my hand a Letter from you. A truly miraculous Son of Adam +in red collar, in the Sunny Spring Morning!--The Bill of +Seventeen Pounds is already far on its way to Dumfries, there to +be kneaded into gold by the due artists: today is American Post- +day; and already in huge hurry about many things, I am +scribbling you some word of answer.... The night _before_ +Milnes's morning, I had furthermore seen your Manchester +Correspondent, Ireland,--an old Edinborough acquaintance too, as +I found. A solid, dark, broad, rather heavy man; full of +energy, and broad sagacity and practicality;--infinitely well +affected to the man Emerson too. It was our clear opinion that +you might come at any time with ample assurance of "succeeding," +so far as wages went, and otherwise; that you ought to come, and +must, and would,--as he, Ireland, would farther write to you. +There is only one thing I have to add of my own, and beg you to +bear in mind,--a date merely. _Videlicet,_ That the time for +lecturing to the London West-End, I was given everywhere to +understand, is _from the latter end of April_ (or say April +altogether) _to the end of May:_ this is a fixed Statistic fact, +all men told me: of this you are in all arrangements to keep +mind. For it will actually do your heart good to look into the +faces, and speak into minds, of really Aristocratic Persons,-- +being one yourself, you Sinner,--and perhaps indeed this will be +the greatest of all the _novelties_ that await you in your +voyage. Not to be seen, I believe, at least never seen by me in +any perfection, except in London only. From April to the end of +May; during those weeks you must be _here,_ and free: remember +that date. Will you come in Winter then, next Winter,--or when? +Ireland professed to know you by the Photograph too; which I +never yet can.--I wrote by last Packet: enough here. Your +friend Cunningham has not presented himself; shall be right +welcome when he does,--as all that in the least belong to you may +well hope to be. Adieu. Our love to you all. + +Ever Yours, + T. Carlyle + + + +CXX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 April, 1847 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I have two good letters from you, and until now +you have had no acknowledgment. Especially I ought to have told +you how much pleasure your noble invitation in March gave me. +This pleasing dream of going to England dances before me +sometimes. It would be, I then fancy, that stimulation which my +capricious, languid, and languescent study needs. At home, no +man makes any proper demand on me, and the audience I address is +a handful of men and women too widely scattered than that they +can dictate to me that which they are justly entitled to say. +Whether supercilious or respectful, they do not say anything that +can be heard. Of course, I have only myself to please, and my +work is slighted as soon as it has lost its first attraction. It +is to be hoped, if one should cross the sea, that the terror of +your English culture would scare the most desultory of Yankees +into precision and fidelity; and perhaps I am not yet too old to +be animated by what would have seemed to my youth a proud +privilege. If you shall fright me into labor and concentration, +I shall win my game; for I can well afford to pay any price to +get my work well done. For the rest, I hesitate, of course, to +rush rudely on persons that have been so long invisible angels to +me. No reasonable man but must hold these bounds in awe:--I-- +much more,--who am of a solitary habit, from my childhood until +now.--I hear nothing again from Mr. Ireland. So I will let the +English Voyage hang as an afternoon rainbow in the East, and mind +my apples and pears for the present. + +You are to know that in these days I lay out a patch of orchard +near my house, very much to the improvement, as all the household +affirm, of our homestead. Though I have little skill in these +things, and must borrow that of my neighbors, yet the works of +the garden and orchard at this season are fascinating, and will +eat up days and weeks, and a brave scholar should shun it like +gambling, and take refuge in cities and hotels from these +pernicious enchantments. For the present, I stay in the +new orchard. + +Duyckinck, a literary man in New York, who advises Wiley and +Putnam in their publishing enterprises, wrote me lately, that +they had $600 for you, from _Cromwell._ So may it be. + +Yours, + R.W.E. + + + +CXXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 May, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--....My time is nearly up today; but I write a +word to acknowledge your last Letter (30 April), and various +other things. For example, you must tell Mr. Thoreau (is that +the exact name? for I have lent away the printed pages) that his +Philadelphia Magazine with the _Lecture_* in two pieces was +faithfully delivered here, about a fortnight ago; and carefully +read, as beseemed, with due entertainment and recognition. A +vigorous Mr. Thoreau,--who has formed himself a good deal upon +one Emerson, but does not want abundant fire and stamina of his +own;--recognizes us, and various other things, in a most admiring +great-hearted manner; for which, as for _part_ of the confused +voice from the jury bog (not yet summed into a verdict, nor +likely to be summed till Doomsday, nor needful to sum), the poor +prisoner at the bar may justly express himself thankful! In +plain prose, I like Mr. Thoreau very well; and hope yet to hear +good and better news of him:--only let him not "turn to +foolishness"; which seems to me to be terribly easy, at present, +both in New England and Old! May the Lord deliver us all from +_Cant;_ may the Lord, whatever else he do or forbear, teach us +to look Facts honestly in the face, and to beware (with a kind of +shudder) of smearing _them_ over with our despicable and damnable +palaver, into irrecognizability, and so _falsifying_ the Lord's +own Gospels to his unhappy blockheads of children, all staggering +down to Gehenna and the everlasting Swine's-trough for _want_ of +Gospels.--O Heaven, it is the most accursed sin of man; and done +everywhere, at present, on the streets and high places, at +noonday! Very seriously I say, and pray as my chief orison, May +the Lord deliver us from it.-- + +---------- +* On Carlyle, published in _Graham's Magazine_ in March and +April, 1847. +---------- + +About a week ago there came your neighbor Hoar; a solid, +sensible, effectual-looking man, of whom I hope to see much more. +So soon as possible I got him under way for Oxford, where I +suppose he was, last week;--_both_ Universities was too much for +the limits of his time; so he preferred Oxford;--and now, this +very day, I think, he was to set out for the Continent; not to +return till the beginning of July, when he promises to call here +again. There was something really pleasant to me in this Mr. +Hoar: and I had innumerable things to ask him about Concord, +concerning which topic we had hardly got a word said when our +first interview had to end. I sincerely hope he will not fail to +keep his time in returning. + +You do very well, my Friend, to plant orchards; and fair fruit +shall they grow (if it please Heaven) for your grandchildren to +pluck;--a beautiful occupation for the son of man, in all +patriarchal and paternal times (which latter are patriarchal +too)! But you are to understand withal that your coming hither +to lecture is taken as a settled point by all your friends here; +and for my share I do not reckon upon the smallest doubt about +the _essential_ fact of it, simply on some calculation and +adjustment about the circumstantials. Of Ireland, who I surmise +is busy in the problem even now, you will hear by and by, +probably in more definite terms: I did not see him again after +my first notice of him to you; but there is no doubt concerning +his determinations (for all manner of reasons) to get you to +Lancashire, to England;--and in fact it is an adventure which I +think you ought to contemplate as _fixed,_--say for this year and +the beginning of next? Ireland will help you to fix the dates; +and there is nothing else, I think, which should need fixing.-- +Unquestionably you would get an immense quantity of food for +ideas, though perhaps not at all in the way you anticipate, in +looking about among us: nay, if you even thought us _stupid,_ +there is something in the godlike indifference with which London +will accept and sanction even that verdict,--something highly +instructive at least! And in short, for the truth must be told, +London is properly your Mother City too,--verily you have about +as much to do with it, in spite of Polk and Q. Victory, as I had! +And you ought to come and look at it, beyond doubt; and say to +this land, "Old Mother, how are you getting on at all?" To which +the Mother will answer, "Thankee, young son, and you?"--in a way +useful to both parties! That is truth. + +Adieu, dear Emerson; good be with you always. Hoar gave me your +_American_ Poems: thanks. _Vale et me ama._ + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CXXII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 4 June, 1847 + +Dear Carlyle,--I have just got your friendliest letter of May 18, +with its varied news and new invitations. Really you are a +dangerous correspondent with your solid and urgent ways of +speaking. No affairs and no studies of mine, I fear, will be +able to make any head against these bribes. Well, I will adorn +the brow of the coming months with this fine hope; then if the +rich God at last refuses the jewel, no doubt he will give +something better--to both of us. But thinking on this project +lately, I see one thing plainly, that I must not come to London +as a lecturer. If the plan proceed, I will come and see you,-- +thankful to Heaven for that mercy, should such a romance looking +reality come to pass,--I will come and see you and Jane Carlyle, +and will hear what you have to say. You shall even show me, if +you will, such other men and women as will suffer themselves to +be seen and heard, asking for nothing again. Then I will depart +in peace, as I came. + +At Mr. Ireland's "Institutes," I will read lectures; and +possibly in London too, if, when there, you looking with your +clear eyes shall say that it is desired by persons who ought to +be gratified. But I wish such lecturing to be a mere +contingency, and nowise a settled purpose. I had rather stay at +home, and forego the happiness of seeing you, and the excitement +of England, than to have the smallest pains taken to collect an +audience for me. So now we will leave this egg in the desert for +the ostrich Time to hatch it or not. + +It seems you are not tired of pale Americans, or will not own it. +You have sent our Country-Senator* where he wanted to go, and to +the best hospitalities as we learn today directly from him. I +cannot avoid sending you another of a different stamp. Henry +Hedge is a recluse but Catholic scholar in our remote Bangor, who +reads German and smokes in his solitary study through nearly +eight months of snow in the year, and deals out, every Sunday, +his witty apothegms to the lumber-merchants and township-owners +of Penobscot River, who have actually grown intelligent +interpreters of his riddles by long hearkening after them. They +have shown themselves very loving and generous lately, in making +a quite munificent provision for his traveling. Hedge has a true +and mellow heart,... and I hope you will like him. + +-------- +* The Hon. E. Rockwood Hoar. +-------- + +I have seen lately a Texan, ardent and vigorous, who assured me +that Carlyle's Writings were read with eagerness on the banks of +the Colorado. There was more to tell, but it is too late. + +Ever yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXXIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 31 July, 1847 + +Dear Carlyle,--In my old age I am coming to see you. I have +written this day, in answer to sundry letters brought me by the +last steamer, from Mr. Ireland and Mr. Hudson of Leeds, that I +mean in good earnest to sail for Liverpool or for London about +the first of October; and I am disposing my astonished +household--astonished at such a Somerset of the sedentary master +--with that view. + +My brother William was here this week from New York, and will +come again to carry my mother home with him for the winter; my +wife and children three are combining for and against me; at all +events, I am to have my visit. I pray you to cherish your good +nature, your mercy. Let your wife cherish it,--that I may see, I +indolent, this incredible worker, whose toil has been long since +my pride and wonder,--that I may see him benign and unexacting,-- +he shall not be at the crisis of some over-labor. I shall not +stay but an hour. What do I care for his fame? Ah! how gladly I +hoped once to see Sterling as mediator and amalgam, when my turn +should come to see the Saxon gods at home: Sterling, who had +certain American qualities in his genius;--and now you send me +his shade. I found at Munroe's shop the effigy, which, he said, +Cunningham, whom I have not seen or heard from, had left there +for me; a front face, and a profile, both--especially the first +--a very welcome satisfaction to my sad curiosity, the face very +national, certainly, but how thoughtful and how friendly! What +more belongs to this print--whether you are editing his books, or +yourself drawing his lineaments--I know not. + +I find my friends have laid out much work for me in Yorkshire and +Lancashire. What part of it I shall do, I cannot yet tell. As +soon as I know how to arrange my journey best, I shall write +you again. + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + +CXXIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Rawdon, Near Leeds, Yorkshire +31 August, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--Almost ever since your last Letter reached me, I +have been wandering over the country, enveloped either in a +restless whirl of locomotives, view-hunting, &c., or sunk in the +deepest torpor of total idleness and laziness, forgetting, and +striving to forget, that there was any world but that of dreams; +--and though at intervals the reproachful remembrance has arisen +sharply enough on me, that I ought, on all accounts high and low, +to have written you an answer, never till today have I been able +to take pen in hand, and actually begin that operation! Such is +the naked fact. My Wife is with me; we leave no household +behind us but a servant; the face of England, with its mad +electioneerings, vacant tourist dilettantings, with its shady +woods, green yellow harvest-fields and dingy mill-chimneys, so +new and old, so beautiful and ugly, every way so _abstruse_ and +_un_speakable, invites to silence; the whole world, fruitful yet +disgusting to this human soul of mine, invites me to silence; to +sleep, and dreams, and stagnant indifference, as if for the time +one had _got_ into the country of the Lotos-Eaters, and it made +no matter what became of anything and all things. In good truth, +it is a wearied man, at least a dreadfully slothful and +slumberous man, eager for _sleep_ in any quantity, that now +addresses you! Be thankful for a few half-dreaming words, till +we awake again. + +As to your visit to us, there is but one thing to be said and +repeated: That a prophet's chamber is ready for you in Chelsea, +and a brotherly and sisterly welcome, on whatever day at whatever +hour you arrive: this, which is all of the Practical that I can +properly take charge of, is to be considered a given quantity +always. With regard to Lecturing, &c., Ireland, with whom I +suppose you to be in correspondence, seems to have awakened all +this North Country into the fixed hope of hearing you,--and God +knows they have need enough to hear a man with sense in his +head;--it was but the other day I read in one of their +Newspapers, "We understand that Mr. Emerson the distinguished &c. +is certainly &c. this winter," all in due Newspaper phrase, and I +think they settled your arrival for "October" next. May it prove +so! But on the whole there _is_ no doubt of your coming; that +is a great fact. And if so, I should say, Why not come at once, +even as the Editor surmises? You will evidently do no other +considerable enterprise till this voyage to England is achieved. +Come therefore;--and we shall see; we shall hear and speak! I +do not know another man in all the world to whom I can _speak_ +with clear hope of getting adequate response from him: if I +speak to you, it will be a breaking of my silence for the last +time perhaps,--perhaps for the first time, on some points! +_Allons._ I shall not always be so roadweary, lifeweary, sleepy, +and stony as at present. I even think there is yet another Book +in me; "Exodus from Houndsditch" (I think it might be called), +a peeling off of fetid _Jewhood_ in every sense from myself and +my poor bewildered brethren: one other Book; and, if it were a +right one, rest after that, the deeper the better, forevermore. +_Ach Gott!_-- + +Hedge is one of the sturdiest little fellows I have come across +for many a day. A face like a rock; a voice like a howitzer; +only his honest kind gray eyes reassure you a little. We have +met only once; but hope (mutually, I flatter myself) it may be +often by and by. That hardy little fellow too, what has he to do +with "Semitic tradition" and the "dust-hole of extinct +Socinianism," George-Sandism, and the Twaddle of a thousand +Magazines? Thor and his Hammer, even, seem to me a little more +respectable; at least, "My dear Sir, endeavor to clear your mind +of Cant." Oh, we are all sunk, much deeper than any of us +imagines. And our worship of "beautiful sentiments," &c., &c. is +as contemptible a form of long-ears as any other, perhaps the +most so of any. It is in fact damnable.--We will say no more of +it at present. Hedge came to me with tall lank Chapman at his +side,--an innocent flail of a creature, with considerable impetus +in him: the two when they stood up together looked like a circle +and tangent,--in more senses than one. + +Jacobson, the Oxford Doctor, who welcomed your Concord Senator in +that City, writes to me that he has received (with blushes, &c.) +some grand "Gift for his Child" from that Traveler; whom I am +accordingly to thank, and blush to,--Jacobson not knowing his +address at present. The "address" of course is still more +unknown to _me_ at present: but we shall know it, and the man it +indicates, I hope, again before long. So, much for that. + +And now, dear Emerson, Adieu. Will your next Letter tell us the +_when?_ O my Friend! We are here with Quakers, or Ex-Quakers +rather; a very curious people, "like water from the crystal +well"; in a very curious country too, most beautiful and very +ugly: but why write of it, or of anything more, while half +asleep and lotos-eating! Adieu, my Friend; come soon, and let +us meet again under this Sun. + +Yours, + T. Carlyle + + + +CXXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 September, 1847 + +My Dear Carlyle,--The last steamer brought, as ever, good tidings +from you, though certainly from a new habitat, at Leeds, or near +it. If Leeds will only keep you a little in its precinct, I will +search for you there; for it is one of the parishes in the +diocese which Mr. Ireland and his friends have carved out for me +on the map of England. + +I have taken a berth in the packet-ship "Washington Irving," +which leaves Boston for Liverpool next week, 5 October; having +decided, after a little demurring and advising, to follow my +inclination in shunning the steamer. The owners will almost take +oath that their ship cannot be out of a port twenty days. At +Liverpool and Manchester I shall take advice of Ireland and his +officers of the "Institutes," and perhaps shall remain for some +time in that region, if my courage and my head are equal to the +work they offer me. I will write you what befalls me in the +strange city. Who knows but I may have adventures--I who had +never one, as I have just had occasion to write to Mrs. Howitt, +who inquired what mine were? + +Well, if I survive Liverpool, and Manchester, and Leeds, or +rather my errands thither, I shall come some fine day to see you +in your burly city, you in the centre of the world, and sun me a +little in your British heart. It seems a lively passage that I +am entering in the old Dream World, and perhaps the slumbers are +lighter and the Morning is near. Softly, dear shadows, do not +scatter yet. Knit your panorama close and well, till these rare +figures just before me draw near, and are greeted and known. + +But there is no more time in this late night--and what need? +since I shall see you and yours soon. + +Ever yours, + R.W.E. + + + + +CXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 15 October, 1847 + +My Dear Emerson,--Your Letter from Concord, of the 31st of July, +had arrived duly in London; been duly forwarded to my transient +address at Buxton in Derbyshire,--and there, by the faithless +Postmaster, _retained_ among his lumber, instead of given to me +when I called on him! We staid in Buxton only one day and night; +two Newspapers, as I recollect, the Postmaster did deliver to me +on my demand; but your Letter he, with scandalous carelessness, +kept back, and left me to travel forwards without: there +accordingly it lay, week after week, for a month or more; and +only by half-accident and the extraordinary diligence and +accuracy of our Chelsea Postman, was it recovered at all, not +many days ago, after my Wife's return hither. Consider what kind +of fact this was and has been for us! For now, if all have gone +right, you are approaching the coast of England; Chelsea and +your fraternal House _hidden_ under a disastrous cloud to you; +and I know not so much as whitherward to write, and send you a +word of solution. It is one of the most unpleasant mistakes that +ever befell me; I have no resource but to enclose this Note to +Mr. Ireland, and charge him by the strongest adjurations to +have it ready for you the first thing when you set foot upon +our shores.* + +------------ +* Mr. Ireland, in his Recollections of Emerson's Visit to +England, p. 59, prints Carlyle's note to himself, enclosing this +letter, and adds: "The ship reached Liverpool on the 22d of +October, and Mr. Emerson at once proceeded to Manchester. After +spending a few hours in friendly talk, he was 'shot up,' as +Carlyle had desired, to Chelsea, and at the end of a week +returned to Manchester, to begin his lectures." +--------- + +Know then, my Friend, that in verity your Home while in England +is _here;_ and all other places, whither work or amusement may +call you, are but inns and temporary lodgings. I have returned +hither a day or two ago, and free from any urgent calls or +businesses of any kind; my Wife has your room all ready;--and +here surely, if anywhere in the wide Earth, there ought to be a +brother's welcome and kind home waiting you! Yes, by Allah!--An +"Express Train" leaves Liverpool every afternoon; and in some +six hours will set you down here. I know not what your +engagements are; but I say to myself, Why not come at once, and +rest a little from your sea-changes, before going farther? In +six hours you can be out of the unstable waters, and sitting in +your own room here. You shall not be bothered with talk till you +repose; and you shall have plenty of it, hot and hot, when the +appetite does arise in you. "No. 5 Great Cheyne Row, Chelsea": +come to the "London Terminus," from any side; say these magic +words to any Cabman, and by night or by day you are a welcome +apparition here,--foul befall us otherwise! This is the fact: +what more can I say? I make my affidavit of the same; and +require you in the name of all Lares and Penates, and Household +Gods ancient and modern which are sacred to men, to consider it +and take brotherly account of it!-- + +Shall we hear of you, then, in a day or two: shall we not +perhaps see you in a day or two! That depends on the winds and +the chances; but our affection is independent of such. Adieu; +_au revoir,_ it now is! Come soon; come at once. + +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + + + + +Extracts from Emerson's Diary + +October, 1847 + +"I found at Liverpool, after a couple of days, a letter which had +been seeking me, from Carlyle, addressed to 'R.W.E. on the +instant when he lands in England,' conveying the heartiest +welcome and urgent invitation to house and hearth. And finding +that I should not be wanted for a week in the Lecture-rooms I +came down to London on Monday, and, at ten at night, the door was +opened by Jane Carlyle, and the man himself was behind her with a +lamp in the hall. They were very little changed from their old +selves of fourteen years ago (in August), when I left them at +Craigenputtock. 'Well,' said Carlyle, 'here we are shoveled +together again.' The floodgates of his talk are quickly opened, +and the river is a plentiful stream. We had a wide talk that +night until nearly one o'clock, and at breakfast next morning +again. At noon or later we walked forth to Hyde Park and the +Palaces, about two miles from here, to the National Gallery, and +to the Strand, Carlyle melting all Westminster and London into +his talk and laughter, as he goes. Here, in his house, we +breakfast about nine, and Carlyle is very prone, his wife says, +to sleep till ten or eleven, if he has no company. An immense +talker, and altogether as extraordinary in that as in his +writing; I think, even more so; you will never discover his +real vigor and range, or how much more he might do than he has +ever done, without seeing him. My few hours discourse with him, +long ago, in Scotland, gave me not enough knowledge of him; and +I have now at last been taken by surprise by him." + +"C. and his wife live on beautiful terms. Their ways are very +engaging, and, in her bookcase, all his books are inscribed to her, +as they came from year to year, each with some significant lines." + +"I had a good talk with C. last night. He says over and over, +for months, for years, the same thing. Yet his guiding genius is +his moral sense, his perception of the sole importance of truth +and justice; and he, too, says that there is properly no +religion in England. He is quite contemptuous about _'Kunst,'_ +also, in Germans, or English, or Americans;* and has a huge +respect for the Duke of Wellington, as the only Englishman, or +the only one in the Aristocracy, who will have nothing to do with +any manner of lie." + +---------- +* See _English Traits,_ Ch. XVI.; and _Life of Sterling,_ Part +II. Ch. VII. "Among the windy gospels addressed to our poor +century there are few louder than this of Art." +---------- + +The following sentences are of later date than the preceding:-- + +"Carlyle had all the _kleinstadtlich_ traits of an islander +and a Scotsman, and reprimanded with severity the rebellious +instincts of the native of a vast continent which made light of +the British Islands." + +"Carlyle has a hairy strength which makes his literary vocation a +mere chance, and what seems very contemptible to him. I could +think only of an enormous trip-hammer with an 'Aeolian attachment."' + +"In Carlyle as in Byron, one is more struck with the rhetoric +than with the matter. He has manly superiority rather than +intellectuality, and so makes good hard hits all the time. There +is more character than intellect in every sentence, herein +strongly resembling Samuel Johnson." + +"England makes what a step from Dr. Johnson to Carlyle! what +wealth of thought and science, what expansion of views and +profounder resources does the genius and performance of this +last imply! If she can make another step as large, what new +ages open!" + + + + +CXXVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Mrs. Massey's, Manchester, 2 Fenny Place, Fenny St. +November 5, 1847 + +Ah! my dear friend, all these days have gone, and you have had no +word from me, when the shuttles fly so swiftly in your English +loom, and in so few hours we may have tidings of the best that +live. At last, and only this day for the first day, I am +stablished in my own lodgings on English ground, and have a fair +parlor and chamber, into both of which the sun and moon shine, +into which friendly people have already entered. + +Hitherto I have been the victim of trifles,--which is the fate +and the chief objection to traveling. Days are absorbed in +precious nothings. But now that I am in some sort a citizen, of +Manchester, and also of Liverpool (for there also I am to enter +on lodgings tomorrow, at 56 Stafford Street, Islington), perhaps +the social heart of this English world will include me also in +its strong and healthful circulations. I get the best letters +from home by the last steamers, and was much occupied in +Liverpool yesterday in seeing Dr. Nichol of Glasgow, who was to +sail in the "Acadia," and in giving him credentials to some +Americans. I find here a very kind reception from your friends, +as they emphatically are,--Ireland, Espinasse, Miss Jewsbury, Dr. +Hodgson, and a circle expanding on all sides outward,--and Mrs. +Paulet at Liverpool. I am learning there also to know friendly +faces, and a certain Roscoe Club has complimented me with its +privileges. The oddest part of my new position is my alarming +penny correspondence, which, what with welcomes, invitations to +lecture, proffers of hospitality, suggestions from good +Swedenborgists and others for my better guidance touching the +titles of my discourses, &c., &c., all requiring answers, +threaten to eat up a day like a cherry. In this fog and +miscellany, and until the heavenly sun shall give me one beam, +will not you, friend and joy of so many years, send me a quiet +line or two now and then to say that you still smoke your pipe in +peace, side by side with wife and brother also well and smoking, +or able to smoke? Now that I have in some measure calmed down +the astonishment and consternation of seeing your dreams change +into realities, I mean, at my next approximation or perihelion, +to behold you with the most serene and sceptical calmness. + +So give my thanks and true affectionate remembrance to Jane +Carlyle, and my regards also to Dr. Carlyle, whose precise +address please also to send me. + +Ever your loving + R.W.E. + +The address at the top of this note is the best for the present, +as I mean to make this my centre. + + + + +CXXVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 13 November, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Book-parcels were faithfully sent off, +directly after your departure: in regard to one of them I had a +pleasant visit from the proprietor in person,--the young +Swedenborgian Doctor, whom to my surprise I found quite an +agreeable, accomplished secular young gentleman, much given to +"progress of the species," &c., &c.; from whom I suppose you have +yourself heard. The wandering umbrella, still short of an owner, +hangs upon its peg here, without definite outlook. Of yourself +there have come news, by your own Letter, and by various excerpts +from Manchester Newspapers. _Gluck zu!_-- + +This Morning I received the Enclosed, and send it off to you +without farther response. Mudie, if I mistake not, is some small +Bookseller in the Russell-Square region; pray answer him, if you +think him worthy of answer. A dim suspicion haunts me that +perhaps he was the Republisher (or Pirate) of your first set of +_Essays:_ but probably he regards this as a mere office of +untutored friendship on his part. Or possibly I do the poor man +wrong by misremembrance? Chapman could tell. + +I am sunk deep here, in effete Manuscripts, in abstruse +meditations, in confusions old and new; sinking, as I may +describe myself, through stratum after stratum of the Inane,-- +down to one knows not what depth! I unfortunately belong to +the Opposition Party in many points, and am in a minority of +one. To keep silence, therefore, is among the principal duties +at present. + +We had a call from Bancroft, the other evening. A tough Yankee +man; of many worthy qualities more tough than musical; among +which it gratified me to find a certain small under-current of +genial _humor,_ or as it were _hidden laughter,_ not noticed +heretofore. + +My Wife and all the rest of us are well; and do all salute you +with our true wishes, and the hope to have you here again before +long. Do not bother yourself with other than voluntary writing +to me, while there is so much otherwise that you are obliged to +write. If on any point you want advice, information, or other +help that lies within the limits of my strength, command me, now +and always. And so Good be with you; and a happy meeting to us +soon again. + +Yours ever truly, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXXIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 30 November, 1847 + +Dear Emerson,--Here is a word for you from Miss Fuller; I send +you the Cover also, though I think there is little or nothing in +that. It contained another little Note for Mazzini; who is +wandering in foreign parts, on paths unknown to me at present. +Pray send my regards to Miss Fuller, when you write. + +We hear of you pretty often, and of your successes with the +Northern populations. We hope for you in London again before +long.--I am busy, if at all, altogether _inarticulately_ in these +days. My respect for _silence,_ my distrust of _Speech,_ seem to +grow upon me. There is a time for both, says Solomon; but we, +in our poor generation, have forgotten one of the "times." + +Here is a Mr. Forster* of Rawdon, or Bradford, in Yorkshire; our +late host in the Autumn time; who expects and longs to be yours +when you come into those parts. + +I am busy with William Conqueror's _Domesday Book_ and with the +commentaries of various blockheads on it:--Ah me! + +All good be with you, and happy news from those dear to you. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +----------- +* Now the Rt. Hon. W E. Forster, M.P. +----------- + + + + +CXXX. Emerson to Carlyle + +2 Fenny Street, Higher Broughton, Manchester +28 December, 1847 + +Dear Carlyle,--I am concerned to discover that Margaret Fuller in +the letter which you forwarded prays me to ask you and Mrs. +Carlyle respecting the Count and Countess Pepoli, who are in Rome +for the winter, whether they would be good for her to know?--That +is pretty nearly the form of her question. As one third of the +winter is gone, and one half will be, before her question can be +answered, I fear, it will have lost some of its pertinence. +Well, it will serve as a token to pass between us, which will +please me if it do not Margaret.--I have had nothing to send you +tidings of. Yet I get the best accounts from home of wife and +babes and friends. I am seeing this England more thoroughly than +I had thought was possible to me. I find this lecturing a key +which opens all doors. I have received everywhere the kindest +hospitality from a great variety of persons. I see many +intelligent and well-informed persons, and some fine geniuses. I +have every day a better opinion of the English, who are a very +handsome and satisfactory race of men, and, in the point of +material performance, altogether incomparable. I have made some +vain attempts to end my lectures, but must go on a little longer. +With kindest regards to the Lady Jane, + +Your friend, + R.W.E. + +Margaret Fuller's address, if anything is to be written, is, Care +of Maquay, Pakenham & Co., Rome. + + + + +CXXXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 30 December, 1847 + +My Dear Emerson,--We are very glad to see your handwriting again, +and learn that you are well, and doing well. Our news of you +hitherto, from the dim Lecture-element, had been satisfactory +indeed, but vague. Go on and prosper. + +I do not much think Miss Fuller would do any great good with the +Pepolis,--even if they are still in Rome, and not at Bologna as +our advices here seemed to indicate. Madam Pepoli is an elderly +Scotch lady, of excellent commonplace vernacular qualities, +hardly of more; the Count, some years younger, and a much airier +man, is on all sides a beautiful _Dilettante,_--little suitable, +I fear, to the serious mind that can recognize him as such! +However, if the people are still in Rome, Miss Fuller can easily +try: Bid Miss Fuller present my Wife's compliments, or mine, or +even _yours_ (for they know all our domesticities here, and are +very intimate, especially Madam with _My_ dame); upon which the +acquaintance is at once made, and can be continued if useful. + +This morning Richard Milnes writes to me for your address; which +I have sent. He is just returned out of Spain; home swiftly to +"vote for the Jew Bill"; is doing hospitalities at Woburn Abbey; +and I suppose will be in Yorkshire (home, near Pontefract) before +long. See him if you have opportunity: a man very easy to _see_ +and get into flowing talk with; a man of much sharpness of +faculty, well tempered by several inches of "Christian _fat_" he +has upon his ribs for covering. One of the idlest, cheeriest, +most gifted of fat little men. + +Tennyson has been here for three weeks; dining daily till he is +near dead;--setting out a Poem withal. He came in to us on +Sunday evening last, and on the preceding Sunday: a truly +interesting Son of Earth, and Son of Heaven,--who has almost lost +his way, among the will-o'-wisps, I doubt; and may flounder ever +deeper, over neck and nose at last, among the quagmires that +abound! I like him well; but can do next to nothing for him. +Milnes, with general co-operation, got him a Pension; and he has +bread and tobacco: but that is a poor outfit for such a soul. +He wants a _task;_ and, alas, that of spinning rhymes, and +naming it "Art" and "high Art," in a Time like ours, will never +furnish him. + +For myself I have been entirely _idle,_--I dare not even say, too +abstrusely _occupied;_ for I have merely been _looking_ at the +Chaos even, not by any means working in it. I have not even read +a Book,--that I liked. All "Literature" has grown inexpressibly +unsatisfactory to me. Better be silent than talk farther in +this mood. + +We are going off, on Saturday come a week, into Hampshire, to +certain Friends you have heard me speak of. Our address, till +the beginning of February, is "Hon. W.B. Baring, Alverstoke, +Gosport, Hants." My Wife sends you many kind regards; remember +us across the Ocean too;--and be well and busy till we meet. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +Last night there arrived No. 1 of the _Massachusetts Review:_ +beautiful paper and print; and very promising otherwise. In the +Introduction I well recognized the hand; in the first Article +too,--not in any of the others. _Faustum sit._ + + + + +CXXXII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Ambleside, 26 February, 1848 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I am here in Miss Martineau's house, and having +seen a good deal of England, and lately a good deal of Scotland +too, I am tomorrow to set forth again for Manchester, and +presently for London. Yesterday, I saw Wordsworth for a good +hour and a half, which he did not seem to grudge, for he talked +freely and fast, and--bating his cramping Toryism and what +belongs to it--wisely enough. He is in rude health, and, though +seventy-seven years old, says he does not feel his age in any +particular. Miss Martineau is in excellent health and spirits, +though just now annoyed by the hesitations of Murray to publish +her book;* but she confides infinitely in her book, which is the +best fortune. But I please myself not a little that I shall in a +few days see you again, and I will give you an account of my +journey. I have heard almost nothing of your late weeks,--but +that is my fault,--only I heard with sorrow that your wife had +been ill, and could not go with you on your Christmas holidays. +Now may her good days have come again! I say I have heard +nothing of your late days; of your early days, of your genius, +of your influence, I cease not to hear and to see continually, +yea, often am called upon to resist the same with might and main. +But I will not pester you with it now.--Miss Martineau, who is +most happily placed here, and a model of housekeeping, sends +kindest remembrances to you both. + +Yours ever, + R. W. Emerson. + +--------- +* "Eastern Life, Past and Present." +--------- + + + + +CXXXIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 28 February, 1848 + +Dear Emerson,--We are delighted to hear of you again at first +hand: our last traditions represented you at Edinburgh, and left +the prospect of your return hither very vague. I have only time +for one word tonight: to say that your room is standing vacant +ever since you quitted it,--ready to be lighted up with all +manner of physical and moral _fires_ that the place will yield; +and is in fact _your_ room, and expects to be accounted such.--I +know not specially what your operations in this quarter are to +be; but whatever they are, or the arrangements necessary for +them, surely it is here that you must alight again in the big +Babel, and deliberately adjust what farther is to be done. +Write to us what day you are to arrive; and the rest is all +already managed. + +Jane has never yet got out since the cold took her; but she has +at no time been so ill as is frequent with her in these winter +disorders; she is now steadily improving, and we expect will +come out with the sun and the green leaves,--as she usually does. +I too caught an ugly cold, and, what is very uncommon with me, a +kind of cough, while down in Hampshire; which, with other +inarticulate matters, has kept me in a very mute abstruse +condition all this while; so that, for many weeks past, I have +properly had no history,--except such as trees in winter, and +other merely passive objects may have. That is not an agreeable +side of the page; but I find it indissolubly attached to the +other: no historical leaf with me but has them _both!_ Reading +does next to nothing for me at present, neither will thinking or +even dreaming rightly prosper; of no province can I be quite +master except of the _silent_ one, in such a case. One feels +there, at last, as if quite annihilated; and takes up arms again +(the poor goose-quill is no great things of a weapon to arm +with!) as if in a kind of sacred despair. + +All people are in a sort of joy-dom over the new French Republic, +which has descended suddenly (or shall we say, _ascended_ alas?) +out of the Immensities upon us; showing once again that the +righteous Gods do yet live and reign! It is long years since I +have felt any such deep-seated pious satisfaction at a public +event. Adieu: come soon; and warn us when. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXXXIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +2 Fenny St., Manchester, 2 March, Thursday [1848] + +Dear Friend,--I hope to set forward today for London, and to +arrive there some time tonight. I am to go first to Chapman's +house, where I shall lodge for a time. If it is too noisy, I +shall move westward. But I hope you are to be at home tomorrow, +for if I prosper, I shall come and beg a dinner with you,--is it +not at five o'clock? I am sorry you have no better news to tell +me of your health,--your own and your wife's. Tell her I shall +surely report you to Alcott, who will have his revenge. Thanks +that you keep the door so wide open for me still. I shall always +come in. + +Ever yours, + R.W.E. + + + + +CXXXV. Emerson to Carlyle +Monday, P.M., 19 June, 1848 + +Dear Carlyle,--Mrs. Crowe of Edinburgh, an excellent lady, known +to you and to many good people, wishes me to go to you with her. + +I tell her that I believe you relax the reins of labor as early +as one hour after noon, and I propose one o'clock on Thursday for +the invasion. If you are otherwise engaged, you must send me +word. Otherwise, we shall come. + +It was sad to hear no good news last evening from Jane Carlyle. +I heartily hope the night brought sleep, and the morning better +health to her. + +Yours always, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 20 June, 1848 + +Dear Emerson,--We shall be very glad to become acquainted with +Mrs. Crowe, of whom already by report we know many favorable +things. Brown (of Portobello, Edinburgh) had given us intimation +of her kind purposes towards Chelsea; and now on Thursday you +(please the Pigs) shall see the adventure achieved. Two o'clock, +not one, is the hour when labor ceases here,--if, alas, there be +any "labor" so much as got begun; which latter is often enough +the sad case. But at either hour we shall be ready for you. + +I hope you penetrated the Armida Palace, and did your devoir to +the sublime Duchess and her Luncheon yesterday! I cannot without +a certain internal amusement (foreign enough to my present humor) +represent to myself such a conjunction of opposite stars! But you +carry a new image off with you, and are a gainer, you. _Allons._ + +My Papers here are in a state of distraction, state of despair! +I see not what is to become of them and me. + +Yours ever truly, + T. Carlyle + +My Wife arose without headache on Monday morning; but feels +still a good deal beaten;--has not had "such a headache" for +several years. + + + + +CXXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, Friday [23 June, 1848] + +Dear Emerson,--I forgot to say, last night, that you are to dine +with us on Sunday; that after our call on the Lady Harriet* we +will take a stroll through the Park, look at the Sunday +population, and find ourselves here at five o'clock for the +above important object. Pray remember, therefore, and no excuse! +In haste. + +Yours ever truly, + T. Carlyle + +------------- +* Lady Ashburton +------------- + + + + +CXXXVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 6 December, 1848 + +Dear Emerson,--We received your Letter* duly, some time ago, with +many welcomes; and have as you see been too remiss in answering +it. Not from forgetfulness, if you will take my word; no, but +from many causes, too complicated to articulate, and justly +producing an indisposition to put pen to paper at all! Never was +I more silent than in these very months; and, with reason too, +for the world at large, and my own share of it in small, are both +getting more and more unspeakable with any convenience! In +health we of this household are about as well as usual;--and look +across to the woods of Concord with more light than we had, +realizing for ourselves a most mild and friendly picture there. +Perhaps it is quite as well that you are left alone of foreign +interference, even of a Letter from Chelsea, till you get your +huge bale of English reminiscences assorted a little. Nobody +except me seems to have heard from you; at least the rest, in +these parts, all plead destitution when I ask for news. What you +saw and suffered and enjoyed here will, if you had once got it +properly warehoused, be new wealth to you for many years. Of one +impression we fail not here: admiration of your pacific virtues, +of gentle and noble tolerance, often sorely tried in this place! +Forgive me my ferocities; you do not quite know what I suffer in +these latitudes, or perhaps it would be even easier for you. +Peace for me, in a Mother of Dead Dogs like this, there is not, +was not, will not be,--till the battle itself end; which, +however, is a sure outlook, and daily growing a nearer one. + +---------- +* The letter is missing, but a fragment of the rough draft of it +exists, dated Concord, 2 October, 1848. Emerson had returned +home in July, and he begins: "'T is high time, no doubt, long +since, that you heard from me, and if there were good news in +America for you, you would be sure to hear. All goes at heavy +trot with us... I fell again quickly into my obscure habits, more +fit for me than the fine things I had seen. I made my best +endeavor to praise the rich country I had seen, and its +excellent, energetic, polished people. And it is very easy for +me to do so. England is the country of success, and success has +a great charm for me, more than for those I talk with at home. +But they were obstinate to know if the English were superior to +their possessions, and if the old religion warmed their hearts, +and lifted a little the mountain of wealth. So I enumerated the +list of brilliant persons I had seen, and the [break in MS.]. +But the question returned. Did you find kings and priests? Did +you find sanctities and beauties that took away your memory, and +sent you home a changed man with new aims, and with a discontent +of your old pastures?" + +Here the fragment ends. Emerson's answer to these questions may be +found in the chapter entitled "Results," in his _English Traits._ +---------- + +Nay, there is another practical question,--but it is from the +female side of the house to the female side,--and in fact +concerns Indian meal, upon which Mrs. Emerson, or you, or the +Miller of Concord (if he have any tincture of philosophy) are now +to instruct us! The fact is, potatoes having vanished here, we +are again, with motives large and small, trying to learn the use +of Indian meal; and indeed do eat it daily to meat at dinner, +though hitherto with considerable despair. Question _first,_ +therefore: Is there by nature a _bitter_ final taste, which +makes the throat smart, and disheartens much the apprentice in +Indian meal;--or is it accidental, and to be avoided? We surely +anticipate the latter answer; but do not yet see how. At first +we were taught the meal, all ground on your side of the water, +had got fusty, _raw;_ an effect we are well used to in oaten and +other meals but, last year, we had a bushel of it ground _here,_ +and the bitter taste was there as before (with the addition of +much dirt and sand, our millstones I suppose being too soft);-- +whereupon we incline to surmise that there is, perhaps, as in the +case of oats, some pellicle or hull that ought to be _rejected_ +in making the meal? Pray ask some philosophic Miller, if Mrs. +Emerson or you do not know;--and as a corollary this _second_ +question: What is the essential difference between _white_ (or +brown-gray-white) Indian Meal and _yellow_ (the kind we now have; +beautiful as new Guineas, but with an ineffaceable tastekin of +_soot_ in it)?--And question _third,_ which includes all: How to +cook _mush_ rightly, at least without bitter? _Long_-continued +boiling seems to help the bitterness, but does not cure it. Let +some oracle speak! I tell all people, our staff of life is in +the Mississippi Valley henceforth;--and one of the truest +benefactors were an American Minerva who could teach us to cook +this meal; which our people at present (I included) are +unanimous in finding nigh uneatable, and loudly exclaimable +against! Elihu Burritt had a string of recipes that went through +all newspapers three years ago; but never sang there oracle of +longer ears than that,--totally destitute of practical +significance to any creature here! + +And now enough of questioning. Alas, alas, I have a quite other +batch of sad and saddest considerations,--on which I must not so +much as enter at present! Death has been very busy in this +little circle of ours within these few days. You remember +Charles Buller, to whom I brought you over that night at the +Barings' in Stanhope Street? He died this day week, almost quite +unexpectedly; a sore loss to all that knew him personally, and +his gladdening sunny presence in many circles here; a sore loss +to the political people too, for he was far the cleverest of all +Whig men, and indeed the only genial soul one can remember in +that department of things.* We buried him yesterday; and now +see what new thing has come. Lord Ashburton, who had left his +mother well in Hampshire ten hours before, is summoned from poor +Buller's funeral by telegraph; hurries back, finds his mother, +whom he loved much, already dead! She was a Miss Bingham, I +think, from Pennsylvania, perhaps from Philadelphia itself. You +saw her; but the first sight by no means told one all or the +best worth that was in that good Lady. We are quite bewildered +by our own regrets, and by the far painfuler sorrow of those +closely related to these sudden sorrows. Of which let me be +silent for the present;--and indeed of all things else, for +_speech,_ inadequate mockery of one's poor meaning, is quite a +burden to me just now! + +--------- +* The reader of Carlyle's _Reminiscences,_ and of Froude's +volumes of his biography, is familiar with the close relations +that had existed between Buller and Carlyle. +---------- + +Neuberg* comes hither sometimes; a welcome, wise kind of man. +Poor little Espinasse still toils cheerily at the oar, and +various friends of yours are about us. Brother John did send +through Chapman all the _Dante,_ which we calculate you have +received long ago: he is now come to Town; doing a Preface, +&c., which also will be sent to you, and just about publishing.-- +Helps, who has been alarmingly ill, and touring on the Rhine +since we were his guests, writes to me yesterday from Hampshire +about sending you a new Book of his. I instructed him How. + +Adieu, dear Emerson; do not forget us, or forget to think +as kindly as you can of us, while we continue in this +world together. + +Yours ever affectionately, + T. Carlyle + +--------- +* Mr. Ireland, in his _Recollections,_ p. 62, gives an +interesting account of Mr. Neuberg,--a highly cultivated German, +who assisted Carlyle in some of the later literary labors of his +life. Neuberg died in 1867, and in a letter to his sister of +that year Carlyle says: "No kinder friend had I in this world; +no man of my day, I believe, had so faithful, loyal, and willing +a helper as he generously was to me for the last twenty or +more years." +----------- + + + + +CXXXIX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Boston, 28 January, 1849 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Here in Boston for the day, though in no fit +place for writing, you shall have, since the steamer goes +tomorrow, a hasty answer to at least one of your questions.... + +You tell me heavy news of your friends, and of those who were +friendly to me for your sake. And I have found farther +particulars concerning them in the newspapers. Buller I have +known by name ever since he was in America with Lord Durham, and +I well remember his face and figure at Mr. Baring's. Even +England cannot spare an accomplished man. + +Since I had your letter, and, I believe, by the same steamer, +your brother's _Dante,_* complete within and without, has come to +me, most welcome. I heartily thank him. 'T is a most +workmanlike book, bearing every mark of honest value. I thank +him for myself, and I thank him, in advance, for our people, who +are sure to learn their debt to him, in the coming months and +years. I sent the book, after short examination, the same day, +to New York, to the Harpers, lest their edition should come out +without Prolegomena. But they answered, the next day, that they +had already received directly the same matter;--yet have not up +to this time returned my book. For the Indian corn,--I have been +to see Dr. Charles T. Jackson (my wife's brother, and our best +chemist, inventor of etherization), who tells me that the reason +your meal is bitter is, that all the corn sent to you from us is +kiln-dried here, usually at a heat of three hundred degrees, +which effectually kills the starch or diastase (?) which would +otherwise become sugar. This drying is thought necessary to +prevent the corn from becoming musty in the contingency of a long +voyage. He says, if it should go in the steamer, it would arrive +sound without previous drying. I think I will try that +experiment, shortly on a box or a barrel of our Concord maize, as +Lidian Emerson confidently engages to send you accurate recipes +for johnny-cake, mush, and hominy. + +--------- +* The _Inferno_ of Dante, a translation in prose by John Carlyle; +an excellent piece of work, still in demand. +--------- + +Why did you not send me word of Clough's hexameter poem, which I +have now received and read with much joy.* But no, you will +never forgive him his metres. He is a stout, solid, reliable man +and friend,--I knew well; but this fine poem has taken me by +surprise. I cannot find that your journals have yet discovered +its existence. With kindest remembrances to Jane Carlyle, and +new thanks to John Carlyle, your friend, + + --R.W. Emerson + +---------- +* "The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich." +---------- + + + + +CXL. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 19 April, 1849 + +My Dear Emerson,--Today is American Postday; and by every rule +and law,--even if all laws but those of Cocker were abolished +from this universe,--a word from me is due to you! Twice I have +heard since I spoke last: prompt response about the Philadelphia +Bill; exact performance of your voluntary promise,--Indian Corn +itself is now here for a week past.... + +Still more interesting is the barrel of genuine Corn ears,-- +Indian Cobs of edible grain, from the Barn of Emerson himself! +It came all safe and right, according to your charitable program; +without cost or trouble to us of any kind; not without curious +interest and satisfaction! The recipes contained in the +precedent letter, duly weighed by the competent jury of +housewives (at least by my own Wife and Lady Ashburton), were +judged to be of decided promise, reasonable-looking every one of +them; and now that the stuff itself is come, I am happy to +assure you that it forms a new epoch for us all in the Maize +department: we find the grain _sweet,_ among the sweetest, with +a touch even of the taste of _nuts_ in it, and profess with +contrition that properly we have never tasted Indian Corn before. +Millers of due faculty (with millstones of _iron_) being scarce +in the Cockney region, and even cooks liable to err, the +Ashburtons have on their resources undertaken the brunt of the +problem one of their own Surrey or Hampshire millers is to grind +the stuff, and their own cook, a Frenchman commander of a whole +squadron, is to undertake the dressing according to the rules. +Yesterday the Barrel went off to their country place in Surrey,-- +a small Bag of select ears being retained here, for our own +private experimenting;--and so by and by we shall see what comes +of it.--I on my side have already drawn up a fit proclamation of +the excellences of this invaluable corn, and admonitions as to +the benighted state of English eaters in regard to it;--to appear +in _Fraser's Magazine,_ or I know not where, very soon. It is +really a small contribution towards World-History, this small act +of yours and ours: there is no doubt to me, now that I taste the +real grain, but all Europe will henceforth have to rely more and +more upon your Western Valleys and this article. How beautiful +to think of lean tough Yankee settlers, tough as gutta-percha, +with most occult unsubduable fire in their belly, steering over +the Western Mountains, to annihilate the jungle, and bring bacon +and corn out of it for the Posterity of Adam! The Pigs in about +a year eat up all the rattlesnakes for miles round: a most +judicious function on the part of the Pigs. Behind the Pigs +comes Jonathan with his all-conquering ploughshare,--glory to him +too! Oh, if we were not a set of Cant-ridden blockheads, there +is no _Myth_ of Athene or Herakles equal to this _fact;_--which I +suppose _will_ find its real "Poets" some day or other; when +once the Greek, Semitic, and multifarious other Cobwebs are swept +away a little! Well, we must wait.--For the rest, if this +skillful Naturalist and you will make any more experiments on +Indian Corn for us, might I not ask that you would try for a +method of preserving _the meal_ in a sound state for us? +Oatmeal, which would spoil directly too, is preserved all year by +kiln-drying the grain before it is ground,--parching it till it +is almost _brown,_ sometimes the Scotch Highlanders, by intense +parching, can keep their oatmeal good for a series of years. No +Miller here at present is likely to produce such beautiful meal +as some of the American specimens I have seen:--if possible, we +must learn to get the grain over in the shape of proper durable +meal. At all events, let your Friend charitably make some +inquiry into the process of millerage, the possibilities of it +for meeting our case;--and send us the result some day, on a +separate bit of paper. With which let us end, for the present. + +Alas, I have yet written nothing; am yet a long way off writing, +I fear! Not for want of matter, perhaps, but for redundance of +it; I feel as if I had the whole world to write yet, with the +day fast bending downwards on me, and did not know where to +begin,--in what manner to address the deep-sunk populations of +the Theban Land. Any way my Life is very _grim,_ on these terms, +and is like to be; God only knows what farther quantity of +braying in the mortar this foolish clay of mine may yet need!-- +They are printing a third Edition of _Cromwell;_ that bothered +me for some weeks, but now I am over with that, and the Printer +wholly has it: a sorrowful, not now or ever a joyful thing to +me, that. The _stupor_ of my fellow blockheads, for Centuries +back, presses too heavy upon that,--as upon many things, O +Heavens! People are about setting up some _Statue of Cromwell,_ +at St. Ives, or elsewhere: the King-Hudson Statue is never yet +set up; and the King himself (as you may have heard) has been +_discovered_ swindling. I advise all men not to erect a statue +for Cromwell just now. Macaulay's _History_ is also out, running +through the fourth edition: did I tell you last time that I had +read it,--with wonder and amazement? Finally, it seems likely +Lord John Russell will shortly walk out (forever, it is hoped), +and Sir R. Peel come in; to make what effort is in him towards +delivering us from the _pedant_ method of treating Ireland. The +_beginning,_ as I think, of salvation (if he can prosper a +little) to England, and to all Europe as well. For they will all +have to learn that man does need government, and that an able- +bodied starving beggar is and remains (whatever Exeter Hall may +say to it) a _Slave_ destitute of a _Master;_ of which facts +England, and convulsed Europe, are fallen foundly ignorant in +these bad ages, and will plunge ever deeper till they rediscover +the same. Alas, alas, the Future for us is not to be made of +_butter,_ as the Platforms prophesy; I think it will be harder +than steel for some ages! No noble age was ever a soft one, nor +ever will or can be.--Your beautiful curious little discourse +(report of a discourse) about the English was sent me by Neuberg; +I thought it, in my private heart, one of the best words (for +_hidden_ genius lodged in it) I had ever heard; so sent it to +the _Examiner,_ from which it went to the _Times_ and all the +other Papers: an excellent sly little word. + +Clough has gone to Italy; I have seen him twice,--could not +manage his hexameters, though I like the man himself, and +hope much of him. "Infidelity" has broken out in Oxford +itself,--immense emotion in certain quarters in consequence, +virulent outcries about a certain "Sterling Club," altogether +a secular society! + +Adieu, dear Emerson; I had much more to say, but there is no +room. O, forgive me, forgive me all trespasses,--and love me +what you can! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXLI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, N.B., 13 August, 1849 + +Dear Emerson,--By all laws of human computation, I owe you a +letter, and have owed, any time these seven weeks: let me now +pay a little, and explain. Your _second_ Barrel of Indian Corn +arrived also perfectly fresh, and of admirable taste and quality; +the very bag of new-ground meal was perfect; and the "popped +corn" ditto, when it came to be discovered: with the whole of +which admirable materials such order was taken as promised to +secure "the greatest happiness to the greatest number"; and due +silent thanks were tendered to the beneficence of the unwearied +Sender:--but all this, you shall observe, had to be done in the +thick of a universal packing and household bustle; I just on the +wing for a "Tour in Ireland," my Wife too contemplating a run to +Scotland shortly after, there to meet me on my return. All this +was seven good weeks ago: I hoped somewhere in my Irish +wayfarings to fling you off a Letter; but alas, I reckoned there +quite without my host (strict "host," called _Time_), finding +nowhere half a minute left to me; and so now, having got home to +my Mother, not to see my Wife yet for some days, it is my +_earliest_ leisure, after all, that I employ in this purpose. I +have been terribly knocked about too,--jolted in Irish cars, +bothered almost to madness with Irish balderdash, above all kept +on dreadfully short allowance of sleep;--so that now first, when +fairly down to rest, all aches and bruises begin to be fairly +sensible; and my clearest feeling at this present is the +uncomfortable one, "that I am not Caliban, but a Cramp": +terribly cramped indeed, if I could tell you everything! + +What the other results of this Irish Tour are to be for me I +cannot in the least specify. For one thing, I seem to be farther +from _speech_ on any subject than ever: such masses of chaotic +ruin everywhere fronted me, the general fruit of long-continued +universal falsity and folly; and such mountains of delusion yet +possessing all hearts and tongues I could do little that was not +even _noxious,_ except _admire_ in silence the general +"Bankruptcy of Imposture" as one there finds and sees it come to +pass, and think with infinite sorrow of the tribulations, futile +wrestlings, tumults, and disasters which yet await that +unfortunate section of Adam's Posterity before any real +improvement can take place among them. Alas, alas! The Gospels +of Political Economy, of _Laissez-faire,_ No-Government, Paradise +to all comers, and so many fatal Gospels,--generally, one may +say, all the Gospels of this blessed "New Era,"--will first have +to be tried, and found wanting. With a quantity of written and +uttered nonsense, and of suffered and inflicted misery, which one +sinks fairly dumb to estimate! A kind of comfort it is, however, +to see that "Imposture" _has_ fallen openly "bankrupt," here as +everywhere else in our old world; that no dexterity of human +tinkering, with all the Parliamentary Eloquence and Elective +Franchises in nature, will ever set it on its feet again, to go +many yards more; but that _its_ goings and currencies in this +Earth have as good as ceased for ever and ever! God is great; +all Lies do now, as from the first, travel incessantly towards +Chaos, and there at length lodge! In some parts of Ireland (the +Western "insolvent Unions," some twenty-seven of them in all), +within a trifle of _one half_ of the whole population are on +Poor-Law rations (furnished by the British Government, L1,100 a +week furnished here, L1,300 there, L800 there); the houses stand +roofless, the lands unstocked, uncultivated, the landlords hidden +from bailiffs, living sometimes "on the hares of their domain": +such a state of things was never witnessed under this sky before; +and, one would humbly expect, cannot last long!--What is to be +done? asks every one; incapable of _hearing_ any answer, were +there even one ready for imparting to him. "_Blacklead_ these +two million idle beggars," I sometimes advised, "and sell them in +Brazil as Niggers,--perhaps Parliament, on sweet constraint, will +allow you to advance them to be Niggers!" In fact, the +Emancipation Societies should send over a deputation or two to +look at _these_ immortal Irish "Freemen," the _ne plus ultra_ of +their class it would perhaps moderate the windpipe of much +eloquence one hears on that subject! Is not this the most +illustrious of all "ages"; making progress of the species at a +grand rate indeed? Peace be with it. + +Waiting for me here, there was a Letter from Miss Fuller in Rome, +written about a month ago; a dignified and interesting Letter; +requesting help with Booksellers for some "History of the late +Italian Revolution" she is about writing; and elegiacally +recognizing the worth of Mazzini and other cognate persons and +things. I instantly set about doing what little seemed in my +power towards this object,--with what result is yet hidden, and +have written to the heroic Margaret: "More power to her elbow!" +as the Irish say. She has a beautiful enthusiasm; and is +perhaps in the right stage of insight for doing that piece of +business well.--Of other persons or interests I will say nothing +till a calmer opportunity; which surely cannot be very long +in coming. + +In four days I am to rejoin my wife; after which some bits of +visits are to be paid in this North Country; necessary most of +them, not likely to be profitable almost any. In perhaps a month +I expect to be back in Chelsea; whither direct a word if you are +still beneficent enough to think of such a Castaway! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +I got Thoreau's Book; and meant well to read it, but have not +yet succeeded, though it went with me through all Ireland: tell +him so, please. Too Jean-Paulish, I found it hitherto. + + + + +CXLII. Carlyle to Emerson +Chelsea, 19 July, 1850 + +My Dear Emerson, My Friend, my Friend,--You behold before you a +remorseful man! It is well-nigh a year now since I despatched +some hurried rag of paper to you out of Scotland, indicating +doubtless that I would speedily follow it with a longer letter; +and here, when gray Autumn is at hand again, I have still written +nothing to you, heard nothing from you! It is miserable to think +of:--and yet it is a fact, and there is no denying of it; and so +we must let it lie. If it please Heaven, the like shall not +occur again. "Ohone Arooh!" as the Irish taught me to say, +"Ohone Arooh!" + +The fact is, my life has been black with care and toil,--labor +above board and far worse labor below;--I have hardly had a +heavier year (overloaded too with a kind of "health" which may be +called frightful): to "burn my own smoke" in some measure, has +really been all I was up to; and except on sheer immediate +compulsion I have not written a word to any creature.-- +Yesternight I finished the last of these extraordinary +_Pamphlets;_ am about running off somewhither into the deserts, +of Wales or Scotland, Scandinavia or still remoter deserts;--and +my first signal of revived reminiscence is to you. + +Nay I have not at any time forgotten you, be that justice done +the unfortunate: and though I see well enough what a great deep +cleft divides us, in our ways of practically looking at this +world,--I see also (as probably you do yourself) where the rock- +strata, miles deep, unite again; and the two poor souls are at +one. Poor devils!--Nay if there were no point of agreement at +all, and I were more intolerant "of ways of thinking" than I even +am,--yet has not the man Emerson, from old years, been a Human +Friend to me? Can I ever forget, or think otherwise than +lovingly of the man Emerson? No more of this. Write to me in +your first good hour; and say that there is still a brother-soul +left to me alive in this world, and a kind thought surviving far +over the sea!--Chapman, with due punctuality at the time of +publication, sent me the _Representative Men;_ which I read in +the becoming manner: you now get the Book offered you for a +shilling, at all railway stations; and indeed I perceive the +word "representative man"' (as applied to the late tragic loss we +have had in Sir Robert Peel) has been adopted by the Able- +Editors, and circulates through Newspapers as an appropriate +household word, which is some compensation to you for the piracy +you suffer from the Typographic Letter-of-marque men here. I +found the Book a most finished clear and perfect set of +_Engravings in the line manner;_ portraitures full of +_likeness,_ and abounding in instruction and materials for +reflection to me: thanks always for such a Book; and Heaven +send us many more of them. _Plato,_ I think, though it is the +most admired by many, did least for me: little save Socrates +with his clogs and big ears remains alive with me from it. +_Swedenborg_ is excellent in _likeness;_ excellent in many +respects;--yet I said to myself, on reaching your general +conclusion about the man and his struggles: "_Missed_ the +consummate flower and divine ultimate elixir of Philosophy, say +you? By Heaven, in clutching at _it,_ and almost getting it, he +has tumbled into Bedlam,--which is a terrible _miss,_ if it were +never so _near!_ A miss fully as good as a mile, I should say!" +--In fact, I generally dissented a little about the _end_ of all +these Essays; which was notable, and not without instructive +interest to me, as I had so lustily shouted "Hear, hear!" all the +way from the beginning up to that stage.--On the whole, let us +have another Book with your earliest convenience: that is the +modest request one makes of you on shutting this. + +I know not what I am now going to set about: the horrible +barking of the universal dog-kennel (awakened by these +_Pamphlets_) must still itself again; my poor nerves must +recover themselves a little:--I have much more to say; and +by Heaven's blessing must try to get it said in some way if +I live.-- + +Bostonian Prescott is here, infinitely _lionized_ by a mob of +gentlemen; I have seen him in two places or three (but forbore +speech): the Johnny-cake is good, the twopence worth of currants +in it too are good; but if you offer it as a bit of baked +Ambrosia, _Ach Gott!_-- + +Adieu, dear Emerson, forgive, and love me a little. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXLIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 14 November, 1850 + +Dear Emerson,--You are often enough present to my thoughts; but +yesterday there came a little incident which has brought you +rather vividly upon the scene for me. A certain "Mr. ---" from +Boston sends us, yesterday morning by post, a Note of yours +addressed to Mazzini, whom he cannot find; and indicates that he +retains a similar one addressed to myself, and (in the most +courteous, kindly, and dignified manner, if Mercy prevent not) is +about carrying it off with him again to America! To give Mercy a +chance, I by the first opportunity get under way for Morley's +Hotel, the address of Mr. ---; find there that Mr.--, since +morning, _has been_ on the road towards Liverpool and America, +and that the function of Mercy is quite extinct in this instance! +My reflections as I wandered home again were none of the +pleasantest. Of this Mr. --- I had heard some tradition, as of +an intelligent, accomplished, and superior man; such a man's +acquaintance, of whatever complexion he be, is and was always a +precious thing to me, well worth acquiring where possible; not +to say that any friend of yours, whatever his qualities +otherwise, carries with him an imperative key to all bolts and +locks of mine, real or imaginary. In fact I felt punished;--and +who knows, if the case were seen into, whether I deserve it? +What "business" it was that deprived me of a call from Mr. ---, +or of the possibility of calling on him, I know very well,--and +---, the little dog, and others know! But the fact in that +matter is very far different indeed from the superficial +semblance; and I appeal to all the _gentlemen_ that are in +America for a candid interpretation of the same. "Eighteen +million bores,"--good Heavens don't I know how many of that +species we also have; and how with us, as with you, the +difference between them and the Eighteen thousand noble-men and +non-bores is immeasurable and inconceivable; and how, with us as +with you, the _latter_ small company, sons of the Empyrean, will +have to fling the former huge one, sons of Mammon and Mud, into +some kind of chains again, reduce them to some kind of silence +again,--unless the old Mud-Demons are to rise and devour us all? +Truly it is so I construe it: and if --- and the Eighteen +millions are well justified in their anger at me, and the +Eighteen thousand owe me thanks and new love. That is my decided +opinion, in spite of you all! And so, along with ---, probably +in the same ship with him, there shall go my protest against the +conduct of ---; and the declaration that to the last I will +protest! Which will wind up the matter (without any word of +yours on it) at this time.--For the rest, though --- sent me his +Pamphlet, it is a fact I have not read a word of it, nor shall +ever read. My Wife read it; but I was away, with far other +things in my head; and it was "lent to various persons" till it +died!--Enough and ten times more than enough of all that. Let me +on this last slip of paper give you some response to the Letter* +I got in Scotland, under the silence of the bright autumn sun, in +my Mother's house, and read there. + +-------- +* This letter is missing. +-------- + +You are bountiful abundantly in your reception of those _Latter +Day Pamphlets;_ and right in all you say of them;--and yet +withal you are not right, my Friend, but I am! Truly it does +behove a man to know the inmost resources of this universe, and, +for the sake both of his peace and of his dignity, to possess his +soul in patience, and look nothing doubting (nothing wincing +even, if that be his humor) upon all things. For it is most +indubitable there is good in all;--and if you even see an Oliver +Cromwell assassinated, it is certain you may get a cartload of +turnips from his carcass. Ah me, and I suppose we had too much +forgotten all this, or there had not been a man like you sent to +show it us so emphatically! Let us well remember it; and yet +remember too that it is _not_ good always, or ever, to be "at +ease in Zion"; good often to be in fierce rage in Zion; and +that the vile Pythons of this Mud-World do verily require to have +sun-arrows shot into them and red-hot pokers struck through them, +according to occasion: woe to the man that carries either of +these weapons, and does not use it in their presence! Here, at +this moment, a miserable Italian organ-grinder has struck up the +_Marseillaise_ under my window, for example: was the +_Marseillaise_ fought out on a bed of down, or is it worth +nothing when fought? On those wretched _Pamphlets_ I set no +value at all, or even less than none: to me their one benefit +is, my own heart is clear of them (a benefit not to be despised, +I assure you!)--and in the Public, athwart this storm of curses, +and emptyings of vessels of dishonor, I can already perceive that +it is all well enough there too in reference to them; and the +controversy of the Eighteen millions _versus_ the Eighteen +thousands, or Eighteen units, is going on very handsomely in that +quarter of it, for aught I can see! And so, Peace to the brave +that are departed; and, Tomorrow to fresh fields and pastures new!-- + +I was in Wales, as well as Scotland, during Autumn time; lived +three weeks within wind of St. Germanus's old "College" (Fourteen +Hundred years of age or so) and also not far from _Merthyr +Tydvil,_ Cyclops' Hell, sootiest and horridest avatar of the +Industrial Mammon I had ever anywhere seen; went through the +Severn Valley; at Bath stayed a night with Landor (a proud and +high old man, who charged me with express remembrances for you); +saw Tennyson too, in Cumberland, with his new Wife; and other +beautiful recommendable and 'questionable things;--and was +dreadfully tossed about, and torn almost to tatters by the +manifold brambles of my way: and so at length am here, a much- +lamed man indeed! Oh my Friend, have tolerance for me, have +sympathy with me; you know not quite (I imagine) what a burden +mine is, or perhaps you would find this duty, which you always +do, a little easier done! Be happy, be busy beside your still +waters, and think kindly of me there. My nerves, health I call +them, are in a sad state of disorder: alas, that is nine tenths +of all the battle in this world. Courage, courage!--My Wife +sends salutations to you and yours. Good be with you all always. + +Your affectionate, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXLIV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 8 July, 1851 + +Dear Emerson,--Don't you still remember very well that there is +such a man? I know you do, and will do. But it is a ruinously +long while since we have heard a word from each other;--a state +of matters that ought immediately to _cease._ It was your turn, +I think, to write? It was somebody's turn! Nay I heard lately +you complained of bad eyes; and were grown abstinent of writing. +Pray contradict me this. I cannot do without some regard from +you while we are both here. Spite of your many sins, you are +among the most human of all the beings I now know in the world;-- +who are a very select set, and are growing ever more so, I can +inform you! + +In late months, feeling greatly broken and without heart for +anything weighty, I have been upon a _Life of John Sterling;_ +which will not be good for much, but will as usual gratify me by +taking itself off my hands: it was one of the things I felt a +kind of obligation to do, and so am thankful to have done. Here +is a patch of it lying by me, if you will look at a specimen. +There are four hundred or more pages (prophesies the Printer), a +good many _Letters_ and Excerpts in the latter portion of the +volume. Already half printed, wholly written; but not to come +out for a couple of months yet,--all trade being at a stand till +this sublime "Crystal Palace" go its ways again.--And now since +we are upon the business, I wish you would mention it to E.P. +Clark (is not that the name?) next time you go to Boston: if +that friendly clear-eyed man have anything to say in reference to +it and American Booksellers, let him say and do; he may have a +Copy for anybody in about a month: if _he_ have nothing to say, +then let there be nothing anywhere said. For, mark O +Philosopher, I expressly and with emphasis prohibit _you_ at this +stage of our history, and henceforth, unless I grow poor again. +Indeed, indeed, the commercial mandate of the thing (Nature's +little order on that behalf) being once fulfilled (by speaking to +Clark), I do not care a snuff of tobacco how it goes, and will +prefer, here as elsewhere, my night's rest to any amount of +superfluous money. + +This summer, as you may conjecture, has been very noisy with us, +and productive of little,--the "Wind-dust-ry of all Nations" +involving everything in one inane tornado. The very shopkeepers +complain that there is no trade. Such a sanhedrim of windy fools +from all countries of the Globe were surely never gathered in one +city before. But they will go their ways again, they surely +will! One sits quiet in that faith;--nay, looks abroad with a +kind of pathetic grandfatherly feeling over this universal +Children's Ball which the British Nation in these extraordinary +circumstances is giving it self! Silence above all, silence is +very behoveful! I read lately a small old brown French +duodecimo, which I mean to send you by the first chance there is. +The writer is a Capitaine Bossu; the production, a Journal of +his experiences in "La Louisiane," "Oyo" (_Ohio_), and those +regions, which looks very genuine, and has a strange interest to +me, like some fractional Odyssey or letter.* Only a hundred +years ago, and the Mississippi has changed as never valley did: +in 1751 older and stranger, looked at from its present date, than +Balbec or Nineveh! Say what we will, Jonathan is doing miracles +(of a sort) under the sun in these times now passing.--Do you +know _Bartram's Travels?_ This is of the Seventies (1770) or so; +treats of _Florida_ chiefly, has a wondrous kind of floundering +eloquence in it; and has also grown immeasurably _old._ All +American libraries ought to provide themselves with that kind of +book; and keep them as a kind of future _biblical_ article.-- +Finally on this head, can you tell me of any _good_ Book on +California? Good: I have read several bad. But that too is +worthy of some wonder; that too, like the Old Bucaniers, hungers +and thirsts (in ingenuous minds) to have some true record and +description given of it. + +---------- +* Bossu wrote two books which are known to the student of the +history of the settlement of America; one, "Nouveaux Voyages aux +Indes occidentales," Paris, 1768; the other, "Nouveaux Voyages +dans l'Amerique septentrionale," Amsterdam (Paris), 1777. +---------- + +And poor Miss Fuller, was there any _Life_ ever published of her? +or is any competent hand engaged on it? Poor Margaret, I often +remember her; and think how she is asleep now under the surges +of the sea. Mazzini, as you perhaps know, is with us this +summer; comes across once in the week or so, and tells me, or at +least my Wife, all his news. The Roman revolution has made a man +of him,--quite brightened up ever since;--and the best friend +_he_ ever saw, I believe, was that same Quack-President of +France, who relieved him while it was still time. + +My Brother is in Annandale, working hard over _Dante_ at last; +talks of coming up hither shortly; I am myself very ill and +miserable in the _liver_ regions; very tough otherwise,--though +I have now got spectacles for small print in the twilight. _Eheu +fugaces,_--and yet why _Eheu?_ In fact it is better to be +silent.--Adieu, dear Emerson; I expect to get a great deal +brisker by and by,--and in the first place to have a Missive from +Boston again. My Wife sends you many regards. I am as ever,-- +affectionately Yours, + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CXLV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 28 July, 1851 + +My Dear Carlyle,--You must always thank me for silence, be it +never so long, and must put on it the most generous +interpretations. For I am too sure of your genius and goodness, +and too glad that they shine steadily for all, to importune you +to make assurance sure by a private beam very often. There is +very little in this village to be said to you, and, with all my +love of your letters, I think it the kind part to defend you from +our imbecilities,--my own, and other men's. Besides, my eyes are +bad, and prone to mutiny at any hint of white paper. + +And yet I owe you all my story, if story I have. I have been +something of a traveler the last year, and went down the Ohio +River to its mouth; walked nine miles into, and nine miles out +of the Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky,--walked or sailed, for we +crossed small underground streams,--and lost one day's light; +then steamed up the Mississippi, five days, to Galena. In the +Upper Mississippi, you are always in a lake with many islands. + +"The Far West" is the right name for these verdant deserts. On +all the shores, interminable silent forest. If you land, there +is prairie behind prairie, forest behind forest, sites of +nations, no nations. The raw bullion of nature; what we call +"moral" value not yet stamped on it. But in a thousand miles the +immense material values will show twenty or fifty Californias; +that a good ciphering head will make one where he is. Thus at +Pittsburg, on the Ohio, the "Iron" City, whither, from want of +railroads, few Yankees have penetrated, every acre of land has +three or four bottoms; first of rich soil; then nine feet of +bituminous coal; a little lower, fourteen feet of coal; then +iron, or salt; salt springs, with a valuable oil called +petroleum floating on their surface. Yet this acre sells for the +price of any tillage acre in Massachusetts; and, in a year, the +railroads will reach it, east and west.--I came home by the great +Northern Lakes and Niagara. + +No books, a few lectures, each winter, I write and read. In the +spring, the abomination of our Fugitive Slave Bill drove me to +some writing and speech-making, without hope of effect, but to +clear my own skirts. I am sorry I did not print whilst it was +yet time. I am now told that the time will come again, more's +the pity. Now I am trying to make a sort of memoir of Margaret +Fuller, or my part in one;--for Channing and Ward are to do +theirs. Without either beauty or genius, she had a certain +wealth and generosity of nature which have left a kind of claim +on our consciences to build her a cairn. And this reminds me +that I am to write a note to Mazzini on this matter; and, as you +say you see him, you must charge yourself with delivering it. +What we do must be ended by October. You too are working for +Sterling. It is right and kind. I learned so much from the New +York _Tribune,_ and, a few days after, was on the point of +writing to you, provoked by a foolish paragraph which appeared in +Rufus Griswold's Journal, (New York,) purporting that R.W.E. +possessed important letters of Sterling, without which Thomas +Carlyle could not write the Life. What scrap of hearsay about +contents of Sterling's letters to me, or that I had letters, this +paltry journalist swelled into this puff-ball, I know not. He +once came to my house, and, since that time, may have known +Margaret Fuller in New York; but probably never saw any letter +of Sterling's or heard the contents of any. I have not read +again Sterling's letters, which I keep as good Lares in a special +niche, but I have no recollection of anything that would be +valuable to you. For the American Public for the Book, I think +it important that you should take the precise step of sending +Phillips and Sampson the early copy, and at the earliest. I saw +them, and also E.P. Clark, and put them in communication, and +Clark is to write you at once. + +Having got so far in my writing to you, I do not know but I shall +gain heart, and write more letters over sea. You will think my +sloth suicidal enough. So many men as I learned to value in your +country,--so many as offered me opportunities of intercourse,-- +and I lose them all by silence. Arthur Helps is a chief +benefactor of mine. I wrote him a letter by Ward,--who brought +the letter back. I ought to thank John Carlyle, not only for me, +but for a multitude of good men and women here who read his +_Inferno_ duly. W.E. Forster sent me his Penn Pamphlet; I sent +it to Bancroft, who liked it well, only he thought Forster might +have made a still stronger case. Clough I prize at a high rate, +the man and his poetry, but write not. Wilkinson I thought a man +of prodigious talent, who somehow held it and so taught others to +hold it cheap, as we do one of those bushel-basket memories which +school-boys and school-girls often show,--and we stop their +mouths lest they be troublesome with their alarming profusion. +But there is no need of beginning to count the long catalogue. +Kindest, kindest remembrance to my benefactress, also in your +house, and health and strength and victory to you. + +Your affectionate, + Waldo Emerson + + + + +CXLVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Great Malvern, Worcestershire, 25 August, 1851 + +Dear Emerson,--Many thanks for your Letter, which found me here +about a week ago, and gave a full solution to my bibliopolic +difficulties. However sore your eyes, or however taciturn your +mood, there is no delay of writing when any service is to be done +by it! In fact you are very good to me, and always were, in all +manner of ways; for which I do, as I ought, thank the Upper +Powers and you. That truly has been and is one of the +possessions of my life in this perverse epoch of the world.... + +I have sent off by John Chapman a Copy of the _Life of Sterling,_ +which is all printed and ready, but is not to appear till the +first week of October.... Along with the _Sheets_ was a poor +little French Book for you,--Book of a poor Naval _Mississippi_ +Frenchman, one "Bossu," I think; written only a Century ago, yet +which already seemed old as the Pyramids in reference to those +strange fast-growing countries. I read it as a kind of defaced +_romance;_ very thin and lean, but all _true,_ and very +marvelous as such. + +It is above three weeks since my Wife and I left London, (the +Printer having done,) and came hither with the purpose of a month +of what is called "Water Cure"; for which this place, otherwise +extremely pleasant and wholesome, has become celebrated of late +years. Dr. Gully, the pontiff of the business in our Island, +warmly encouraged my purpose so soon as he heard of it; nay, +urgently offered at once that both of us should become his own +guests till the experiment were tried: and here accordingly we +are; I water-curing, assiduously walking on the sunny mountains, +drinking of the clear wells, not to speak of wet wrappages, +solitary sad _steepages,_ and other singular procedures; my Wife +not meddling for her own behoof, but only seeing me do it. These +have been three of the idlest weeks I ever spent, and there is +still one to come: after which we go northward to Lancashire, +and across the Border where my good old Mother still expects me; +and so, after some little visiting and dawdling, hope to find +ourselves home again before September end, and the inexpressible +Glass Palace with its noisy inanity have taken itself quite away +again. It was no increase of ill-health that drove me hither, +rather the reverse; but I have long been minded to try this +thing: and now I think the result will be,--_zero_ pretty +nearly, and one imagination the less. My long walks, my +strenuous idleness, have certainly done me good; nor has the +"water" done me any _ill,_ which perhaps is much to say of it. +For the rest, it is a strange quasi-monastic--godless and yet +_devotional_--way of life which human creatures have here, and +useful to them beyond doubt. I foresee, this "Water Cure," under +better forms, will become the _Ramadhan_ of the overworked +unbelieving English in time coming; an institution they were +dreadfully in want of, this long while!--We had Twisleton* here +(often speaking of you), who is off to America again; will sail, +I think, along with this Letter; a semi-articulate but solid- +minded worthy man. We have other officials and other +_litterateurs_ (T.B. Macaulay in his hired villa for one): but +the mind rather shuns than seeks them, one finds solitary quasi- +devotion preferable, and [Greek], as Pindar had it! + +----------- +* The late Hon. Edward Twisleton, a man of high character and +large attainments, and with a personal disposition that won the +respect and affection of a wide circle of friends on both sides +of the Atlantic. He was the author of a curious and learned +treatise entitled "The Tongue not Essential to Speech," and his +remarkable volume on "The Handwriting of Junius" seems to have +effectually closed a long controversy. +--------- + +Richard Milnes is married, about two weeks ago, and gone to +Vienna for a jaunt. His wife, a Miss Crewe (Lord Crewe's +sister), about forty, pleasant, intelligent, and rather rich: +that is the end of Richard's long first act. Alfred +Tennyson, perhaps you heard, is gone to Italy with his wife: +their baby died or was dead-born; they found England wearisome: +Alfred has been taken up on the top of the wave, and a good deal +jumbled about since you were here. Item Thackeray; who is +coming over to lecture to you: a mad world, my Masters! Your +Letter to Mazzini was duly despatched; and we hear from him that +he will write to you, on the subject required, without delay. +Browning and his wife, home from Florence, are both in London at +present; mean to live in Paris henceforth for some time. They +had seen something both of Margaret and her d'Ossoli, and +appeared to have a true and lively interest in them; Browning +spoke a long while to me, with emphasis, on the subject: I think +it was I that had introduced poor Margaret to them. I said he +ought to send these reminiscences to America,--that was the night +before we left London, three weeks ago; his answer gave me the +impression there had been some hindrance somewhere. Accordingly, +when your Letter and Mazzini's reached me here, I wrote to +Browning urgently on the subject: but he informs me that they +_have_ sent all their reminiscences, at the request of Mr. Story; +so that it is already all well.--Dear Emerson, you see I am at +the bottom of my paper. I will write to you again before long; +we cannot let you lie fallow in that manner altogether. Have you +got proper _spectacles_ for your eyes? I have adopted that +beautiful symbol of old age, and feel myself very venerable: +take care of your eyes! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CXLVII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 14 April, 1852 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I have not grown so callous by my sulky habit, +but that I know where my friends are, and who can help me, in +time of need. And I have to crave your good offices today, and +in a matter relating once more to Margaret Fuller.... You were +so kind as to interest yourself, many months ago, to set Mazzini +and Browning on writing their Reminiscences for us. But we never +heard from either of them. Lately I have learned, by way of Sam +Longfellow, in Paris, brother of our poet Longfellow, that +Browning assured him that he did write and send a memoir to this +country,--to whom, I know not. It never arrived at the hands of +the Fullers, nor of Story, Channing, or me;--though the book was +delayed in the hope of such help. I hate that his paper should +be lost. + +The little French _Voyage,_ &c. of Bossu, I got safely, and +compared its pictures with my own, at the Mississippi, the +Illinois, and Chicago. It is curious and true enough, no doubt, +though its Indians are rather dim and vague, and "Messieurs +Sauvages" Good Indians we have in Alexander Henry's _Travels in +Canada,_ and in our modern Catlin, and the best Western America, +perhaps, in F.A. Michaux, _Voyage a l'ouest des monts +Alleghanis,_ and in Fremont. But it was California I believe you +asked about, and, after looking at Taylor, Parkman, and the rest, +I saw that the only course is to read them all, and every private +letter that gets into the newspapers. So there was nothing +to say. + +I rejoiced with the rest of mankind in the _Life of Sterling,_ +and now peace will be to his Manes, down in this lower sphere. +Yet I see well that I should have held to his opinion, in all +those conferences where you have so quietly assumed the palms. +It is said: here, that you work upon Frederick the Great?? +However that be, health, strength, love, joy, and victory to you. + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXLVIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 7 May, 1852 + +Dear Emerson,--I was delighted at the sight of your hand again. +My manifold sins against you, involuntary all of them I may well +say, are often enough present to my sad thoughts; and a kind of +remorse is mixed with the other sorrow,--as if I could have +_helped_ growing to be, by aid of time and destiny, the grim +Ishmaelite I am, and so shocking your serenity by my ferocities! +I admit you were like an angel to me, and absorbed in the +beautifulest manner all thunder-clouds into the depths of your +immeasurable a ether;--and it is indubitable I love you very +well, and have long done, and mean to do. And on the whole you +will have to rally yourself into some kind of Correspondence with +me again; I believe you will find that also to be a commanded +duty by and by! To me at any rate, I can say, it is a great +want, and adds perceptibly to the sternness of these years: deep +as is my dissent from your Gymnosophist view of Heaven and Earth, +I find an agreement that swallows up all conceivable dissents; +in the whole world I hardly get, to my spoken human word, any +other word of response which is authentically _human._ God help +us, this is growing a very lonely place, this distracted dog- +kennel of a world! And it is no joy to me to see it about to +have its throat cut for its immeasurable devilries; that is not +a pleasant process to be concerned in either more or less,-- +considering above all how many centuries, base and dismal all of +them, it is like to take! Nevertheless _Marchons,_--and swift +too, if we have any speed, for the sun is sinking.... Poor +Margaret, that is a strange tragedy that history of hers; and +has many traits of the Heroic in it, though it is wild as the +prophecy of a Sibyl. Such a predetermination to _eat_ this big +Universe as her oyster or her egg, and to be absolute empress of +all height and glory in it that her heart could conceive, I have +not before seen in any human soul. Her "mountain me" indeed:-- +but her courage too is high and clear, her chivalrous nobleness +indeed is great; her veracity, in its deepest sense, _a toute +epreuve._--Your Copy of the Book* came to me at last (to my joy): +I had already read it; there was considerable notice taken of it +here; and one half-volume of it (and I grieve to say only one, +written by a man called Emerson) was completely approved by me +and innumerable judges. The rest of the Book is not without +considerable geniality and merits; but one wanted a clear +concise Narrative beyond all other merits; and if you ask here +(except in that half-volume) about any fact, you are answered (so +to speak) not in words, but by a symbolic tune on the bagpipe, +symbolic burst of wind-music from the brass band;--which is not +the plan at all!--What can have become of Mazzini's Letter, which +he certainly did write and despatched to you, is not easily +conceivable. Still less in the case of Browning: for Browning +and his Wife did also write; I myself in the end of last July, +having heard him talk kindly and well of poor Margaret and her +Husband, took the liberty on your behalf of asking him to put +something down on paper; and he informed me, then and repeatedly +since, he had already done it,--at the request of Mrs. Story, I +think. His address at present is, "No. 138 Avenue des Champs +Elysees, a Paris," if your American travelers still thought of +inquiring.--Adieu, dear Emerson, till next week. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +-------- +* "The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli." +-------- + + + + +CXLIX. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, May [?], 1852 + +You make me happy with your loving thoughts and meanings towards +me. I have always thanked the good star which made us early +neighbors, in some sort, in time and space. And the beam is +twice warmed by your vigorous good-will, which has steadily kept +clear, kind eyes on me. + +-------- +* From an imperfect rough draft. +-------- + +It is good to be born in good air and outlook, and not less with +a civilization, that is, with one poet still living in the world. +O yes, and I feel all the solemnity and vital cheer of the +benefit.--If only the mountains of water and of land and the +steeper mountains of blighted and apathized moods would permit a +word to pass now and then. It is very fine for you to tax +yourself with all those incompatibilities. I like that Thor +should make comets and thunder, as well as Iduna apples, or +Heimdal his rainbow bridge, and your wrath and satire has all too +much realism in it, than that we can flatter ourselves by +disposing of you as partial and heated. Nor is it your fault +that you do a hero's work, nor do we love you less if we cannot +help you in it. Pity me, O strong man! I am of a puny +constitution half made up, and as I from childhood knew,--not a +poet but a lover of poetry, and poets, and merely serving as +writer, &c. in this empty America, before the arrival of the +poets. You must not misconstrue my silences, but thank me +for them all, as a true homage to your diligence which I love +to defend... + +She* had such reverence and love for Landor that I do not know +but at any moment in her natural life she would have sunk in the +sea, for an ode from him; and now this most propitious cake is +offered to her Manes. The loss of the notes of Browning and of +Mazzini, which you confirm, astonishes me. + +--------- +* Margaret Fuller. The break in continuity is in the rough draft. +--------- + + + + +CL. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 25 June, 1852 + +Dear Emerson...... You are a born _enthusiast,_ as quiet as you +are; and it will continue so, at intervals, to the end. I +admire your sly low-voiced sarcasm too;--in short, I love the +sternly-gentle close-buttoned man very well, as I have always +done, and intend to continue doing!--Pray observe therefore, and +lay it to heart as a practical fact, that you are bound to +persevere in writing to me from time to time; and will never get +it given up, how sulky soever you grow, while we both remain in +this world. Do not I very well understand all that you say about +"apathized moods," &c.? The gloom of approaching old age +(approaching, nay arriving with some of us) is very considerable +upon a man; and on the whole one contrives to take the very +ugliest view, now and then, of all beautifulest things; and to +shut one's lips with a kind of grim defiance, a kind of imperial +sorrow which is almost like felicity,--so completely and +composedly wretched, one is equal to the very gods! These too +are necessary, moods to a man. But the Earth withal is verdant, +sun-beshone; and the Son of Adam has his place on it, and his +tasks and recompenses in it, to the close;--as one remembers by +and by, too. On the whole, I am infinitely solitary; but not +more heavy laden than I have all along been, perhaps rather less +so; I could fancy even old age to be beautiful, and to have a +real divineness: for the rest, I say always, I cannot part with +you, however it go; and so, in brief, you must get into the way +of holding yourself obliged as formerly to a kind of _dialogue_ +with me; and speak, on paper since not otherwise, the oftenest +you can. Let that be a point settled. + +I am not _writing_ on Frederic the Great; nor at all practically +contemplating to do so. But, being in a reading mood after those +furious _Pamphlets_ (which have procured me showers of abuse from +all the extensive genus Stupid in this country, and not done me +any other mischief, but perhaps good), and not being capable of +reading except in a train and _about_ some object of interest to +me,--I took to reading, near a year ago, about Frederick, as I +had twice in my life done before; and have, in a loose way, +tumbled up an immense quantity of shot rubbish on that field, and +still continue. Not with much decisive approach to Frederick's +_self,_ I am still afraid! The man looks brilliant and noble to +me; but how _love_ him, or the sad wreck he lived and worked in? +I do not even yet _see_ him clearly; and to try making others +see him--?--Yet Voltaire and he _are_ the celestial element of +the poor Eighteenth Century; poor souls. I confess also to a +real love for Frederick's dumb followers: the Prussian +_Soldiery._--I often say to myself, "Were not _here_ the real +priests and virtuous martyrs of that loud-babbling rotten +generation!" And so it goes on; when to end, or in what to end, +God knows. + +Adieu, dear Emerson. A blockhead (by mistake) has been let in, +and has consumed all my time. Good be ever with you and yours. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 19 April, 1853 + + My Dear Friend,--As I find I never write a letter except at the +dunning of the Penny Post,--which is the pest of the century,--I +have thought lately of crossing to England to excuse to you my +negligence of your injunction, which so flattered me by its +affectionateness a year ago. I was to write once a month. My +own disobedience is wonderful, and explains to me all the sins of +omission of the whole world. The levity with which we can let +fall into disuse such a sacrament as the exchange of greeting at +short periods, is a kind of magnanimity, and should be an +astonishing argument of the "Immortality"; and I wonder how it +has escaped the notice of philosophers. But what had I, dear +wise man, to tell you? What, but that life was still tolerable; +still absurdly sweet; still promising, promising, to credulous +idleness;--but step of mine taken in a true direction, or clear +solution of any the least secret,--none whatever. I scribble +always a little,--much less than formerly,--and I did within a +year or eighteen months write a chapter on Fate, which--if we all +live long enough, that is, you, and I, and the chapter--I hope to +send you in fair print. Comfort yourself--as you will--you will +survive the reading, and will be a sure proof that the nut is not +cracked. For when we find out what Fate is, I suppose, the +Sphinx and we are done for; and Sphinx, Oedipus, and world +ought, by good rights, to roll down the steep into the sea. + +But I was going to say, my neglect of your request will show you +how little saliency is in my weeks and months. They are hardly +distinguished in memory other than as a running web out of a +loom, a bright stripe for day, a dark stripe for night, and, when +it goes faster, even these run together into endless gray... I +went lately to St. Louis and saw the Mississippi again. The +powers of the River, the insatiate craving for nations of men to +reap and cure its harvests, the conditions it imposes,--for it +yields to no engineering,--are interesting enough. The Prairie +exists to yield the greatest possible quantity of adipocere. For +corn makes pig, pig is the export of all the land, and you shall +see the instant dependence of aristocracy and civility on the fat +four legs. Workingmen, ability to do the work of the River, +abounded. Nothing higher was to be thought of. America is +incomplete. Room for us all, since it has not ended, nor given +sign of ending, in bard or hero. 'T is a wild democracy, the +riot of mediocrities, and none of your selfish Italies and +Englands, where an age sublimates into a genius, and the whole +population is made into Paddies to feed his porcelain veins, by +transfusion from their brick arteries. Our few fine persons are +apt to die. Horatio Greenough, a sculptor, whose tongue was far +cunninger in talk than his chisel to carve, and who inspired +great hopes, died two months ago at forty-seven years. Nature +has only so much vital force, and must dilute it, if it is to be +multiplied into millions. "The beautiful is never plentiful." +On the whole, I say to myself, that our conditions in America are +not easier or less expensive than the European. For the poor +scholar everywhere must be compromise or alternation, and, after +many remorses, the consoling himself that there has been +pecuniary honesty, and that things might have been worse. But +no; we must think much better things than these. Let Lazarus +believe that Heaven does not corrupt into maggots, and that +heroes do not succumb. + +Clough is here, and comes to spend a Sunday with me, now and +then. He begins to have pupils, and, if his courage holds out, +will have as many as he wants.... I have written hundreds of +pages about England and America, and may send them to you +in print. And now be good and write me once more, and I think +I will never cease to write again. And give my homage to +Jane Carlyle. + +Ever yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 13 May, 1853 + +Dear Emerson,--The sight of your handwriting was a real blessing +to me, after so long an abstinence. You shall not know all the +sad reflections I have made upon your silence within the last +year. I never doubted your fidelity of heart; your genial deep +and friendly recognition of my bits of merits, and my bits of +sufferings, difficulties and obstructions; your forgiveness of +my faults; or in fact that you ever would forget me, or cease to +think kindly of me: but it seemed as if practically _Old Age_ +had come upon the scene here too; and as if upon the whole one +must make up one's mind to know that all this likewise had fallen +silent, and could be possessed henceforth only on those new +terms. Alas, there goes much over, year after year, into the +regions of the Immortals; inexpressibly beautiful, but also +inexpressibly sad. I have not many voices to commune with in the +world. In fact I have properly no voice at all; and yours, I +have often said, was the _unique_ among my fellow-creatures, from +which came full response, and discourse of reason: the +_solitude_ one lives in, if one has any spiritual thought at all, +is very great in these epochs!--The truth is, moreover, I bought +spectacles to myself about two years ago (bad print in candle- +light having fairly become troublesome to me); much may lie in +that! "The buying of your first pair of spectacles," I said to +an old Scotch gentleman, "is an important epoch; like the buying +of your first razor."--"Yes," answered he, "but not quite so +joyful perhaps!"--Well, well, I have heard from you again; and +you promise to be again constant in writing. Shall I believe +you, this time? Do it, and shame the Devil! I really am +persuaded it will do yourself good; and to me I know right well, +and have always known, what it will do. The gaunt lonesomeness +of this Midnight Hour, in the ugly universal _snoring_ hum of the +overfilled deep-sunk Posterity of Adam, renders an articulate +speaker precious indeed! Watchman, what sayest thou, then? +Watchman, what of the night?-- + +Your glimpses of the huge unmanageable Mississippi, of the huge +ditto Model Republic, have here and there something of the _epic_ +in them,--_ganz nach meinem Sinne._ I see you do not dissent +from me in regard to that latter enormous Phenomenon, except on +the outer surface, and in the way of peaceably instead of +_un_peaceably accepting the same. Alas, all the world is a +"republic of the Mediocrities," and always was;--you may see what +_its_ "universal suffrage" is and has been, by looking into all +the ugly mud-ocean (with some old weathercocks atop) that now +_is:_ the world wholly (if we think of it) is the exact stamp of +men wholly, and of the _sincerest_ heart-tongue-and-hand +"suffrage" they could give about it, poor devils!--I was much +struck with Plato, last year, and his notions about Democracy: +mere Latter-Day Pamphlet _saxa et faces_ (read _faeces,_ if you +like) refined into empyrean radiance and lightning of the gods!-- +I, for my own part, perceive the use of all this too, the +inevitability of all this; but perceive it (at the present +height it has attained) to be disastrous withal, to be horrible +and even damnable. That Judas Iscariot should come and slap +Jesus Christ on the shoulder in a familiar manner; that all +heavenliest nobleness should be flung out into the muddy streets +there to jostle elbows with all thickest-skinned denizens of +chaos, and get itself at every turn trampled into the gutters and +annihilated:--alas, the _reverse_ of all this was, is, and ever +will be, the strenuous effort and most solemn heart-purpose of +every good citizen in every country of the world,--and will +_reappear_ conspicuously as such (in New England and in Old, +first of all, as I calculate), when once this malodorous +melancholy "Uncle Tommery" is got all well put by! Which will +take some time yet, I think.--And so we will leave it. + +I went to Germany last autumn; not _seeking_ anything very +definite; rather merely flying from certain troops of +carpenters, painters, bricklayers, &c., &c., who had made a +lodgment in this poor house; and have not even yet got their +incalculable riot quite concluded. Sorrow on them,--and no +return to these poor premises of mine till I have quite left!--In +Germany I found but little; and suffered, from six weeks of +sleeplessness in German beds, &c., &c., a great deal. Indeed I +seem to myself never yet to have quite recovered. The Rhine +which I honestly ascended from Rotterdam to Frankfort was, as I +now find, my chief Conquest the beautifulest river in the Earth, +I do believe; and my first idea of a World-river. It is many +fathoms deep, broader twice over than the Thames here at high +water; and rolls along, mirror-smooth (except that, in looking +close, you will find ten thousand little eddies in it), +voiceless, swift, with trim banks, through the heart of Europe, +and of the Middle Ages wedded to the Present Age: such an image +of calm _power_ (to say nothing of its other properties) I find I +had never seen before. The old Cities too are a little beautiful +to me, in spite of my state of nerves; honest, kindly people +too, but sadly short of our and your _despatch-of-business_ +talents,--a really painful defect in the long run. I was on two +of Fritz's Battle-fields, moreover: Lobositz in Bohemia, and +Kunersdorf by Frankfurt on the Oder; but did not, especially in +the latter case, make much of that. Schiller's death-chamber, +Goethe's sad Court-environment; above all, Luther's little room +in the _Wartburg_ (I believe I actually had tears in my eyes +there, and kissed the old oak-table, being in a very flurried +state of nerves), my belief was that under the Canopy there was +not at present so _holy_ a spot as that same. Of human souls I +found none specially beautiful to me at all, at all,--such my sad +fate! Of learned professors, I saw little, and that little was +more than enough. Tieck at Berlin, an old man, lame on a Sofa, I +did love, and do; he is an exception, could I have seen much of +him. But on the whole _Universal Puseyism_ seemed to me the +humor of German, especially of Berlin thinkers;--and I had some +quite portentous specimens of that kind,--unconscious specimens +of four hundred quack power! Truly and really the Prussian +Soldiers, with their intelligent _silence,_ with the touches of +effective Spartanism I saw or fancied in them, were the class of +people that pleased me best. But see, my sheet is out! I am +still reading, reading, most nightmare Books about Fritz; but as +to writing,--_Ach Gott!_ Never, never.--Clough is coming home, I +hope.--Write soon, if you be not enchanted! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLIIa. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 10 August, 1853 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Your kindest letter, whose date I dare not +count back to,--perhaps it was May,--I have just read again, to +be deeply touched by its noble tragic tone of goodness to me, not +without new wonder at my perversity, and terror at what both may +be a-forging to strike me. My slowness to write is a distemper +that reaches all my correspondence, and not that with you only, +though the circumstance is not worth stating, because, if I +ceased to write to all the rest, there would yet be good reason +for writing to you. I believe the reason of this recusancy is +the fear of disgusting my friends, as with a book open always at +the same page. For I have some experiences, that my interest in +thoughts--and to an end, perhaps, only of new thoughts and +thinking--outlasts that of all my reasonable neighbors, and +offends, no doubt, by unhealthy pertinacity. But though rebuked +by a daily reduction to an absurd solitude, and by a score of +disappointments with intellectual people, and in the face of a +special hell provided for me in the Swedenborg Universe, I am yet +confirmed in my madness by the scope and satisfaction I find in a +conversation once or twice in five years, if so often; and so we +find or pick what we call our proper path, though it be only from +stone to stone, or from island to island, in a very rude, +stilted, and violent fashion. With such solitariness and +frigidities, you may judge I was glad to see Clough here, with +whom I had established some kind of robust working-friendship, +and who had some great permanent values for me. Had he not taken +me by surprise and fled in a night, I should have done what I +could to block his way. I am too sure he will not return. The +first months comprise all the shocks of disappointment that are +likely to disgust a new-comer. The sphere of opportunity opens +slowly, but to a man of his abilities and culture--rare enough +here--with the sureness of chemistry. The Giraffe entering Paris +wore the label, "Eh bien, messieurs, il n'y a qu'une bete de +plus!" And Oxonians are cheap in London; but here, the eternal +economy of sending things where they are wanted makes a +commanding claim. Do not suffer him to relapse into London. He +had made himself already cordially welcome to many good people, +and would have soon made his own place. He had just established +his valise at my house, and was to come--the gay deceiver--once a +fortnight for his Sunday; and his individualities and his +nationalities are alike valuable to me. I beseech you not to +commend his unheroic retreat. + +I have lately made, one or two drafts on your goodness,--which I +hate to do, both because you meet them so generously, and because +you never give me an opportunity of revenge,--and mainly in the +case of Miss Bacon, who has a private history that entitles her +to high respect, and who could be helped only by facilitating her +Shakespeare studies, in which she has the faith and ardor of a +discoverer. Bancroft was to have given her letters to Hallam, +but gave one to Sir H. Ellis. Everett, I believe, gave her one +to Mr. Grote; and when I told her what I remembered hearing of +Spedding, she was eager to see him; which access I knew not how +to secure, except through you. She wrote me that she prospers in +all things, and had just received at once a summons to meet +Spedding at your house. But do not fancy that I send any one to +you heedlessly; for I value your time at its rate to nations, +and refuse many more letters than I give. I shall not send you +any more people without good reason. + +Your visit to Germany will stand you in stead, when the +annoyances of the journey are forgotten, and, in spite of your +disclaimers, I am preparing to read your history of Frederic. +You are an inveterate European, and rightfully stand for your +polity and antiquities and culture: and I have long since +forborne to importune you with America, as if it were a humorous +repetition of Johnson's visit to Scotland. And yet since +Thackeray's adventure, I have often thought how you would bear +the pains and penalties; and have painted out your march +triumphal. I was at New York, lately, for a few days, and fell +into some traces of Thackeray, who has made a good mark in this +country by a certain manly blurting out of his opinion in various +companies, where so much honesty was rare and useful. I am sorry +never once to have been in the same town with him whilst he was +here. I hope to see him, if he comes again. New York would +interest you, as I am told it did him; you both less and more. +The "society" there is at least self-pleased, and its own; it +has a contempt of Boston, and a very modest opinion of London. +There is already all the play and fury that belong to great +wealth. A new fortune drops into the city every day; no end is +to palaces, none to diamonds, none to dinners and suppers. All +Spanish America discovers that only in the U. States, of all the +continent, is safe investment; and money gravitates therefore to +New York. The Southern naphtha, too, comes in as an ingredient, +and lubricates manners and tastes to that degree, that Boston is +hated for stiffness, and excellence in luxury is rapidly +attained. Of course, dining, dancing, equipaging, etc. are the +exclusive beatitudes,--and Thackeray will not cure us of this +distemper. Have you a physician that can? Are you a physician, +and will you come? If you will come, cities will go out to +meet you. + +And now I see I have so much to say to you that I ought to write +once a month, and I must begin at this point again incontinently. + + +Ever yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 9 September, 1853 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter came ten days ago; very kind, and +however late, surely right welcome! You ought to stir yourself +up a little, and actually begin to speak to me again. If we are +getting old, that is no reason why we should fall silent, and +entirely abstruse to one another. Alas, I do not find as I grow +older that the number of articulate-speaking human souls +increases around me, in proportion to the inarticulate and +palavering species! I am often abundantly solitary in heart; +and regret the old days when we used to speak oftener together. + +I have not quitted Town this year at all; have resisted calls to +Scotland both of a gay and a sad description (for the Ashburtons +are gone to John of Groat's House, or the Scottish _Thule,_ to +rusticate and hunt; and, alas, in poor old Annandale a tragedy +seems preparing for me, and the thing I have dreaded all my days +is perhaps now drawing nigh, ah me!)--I felt so utterly broken +and disgusted with the jangle of last year's locomotion, I judged +it would be better to sit obstinately still, and let my thoughts +_settle_ (into sediment and into clearness, as it might be); and +so, in spite of great and peculiar noises moreover, here I am and +remain. London is not a bad place at all in these months,--with +its long clean streets, green parks, and nobody in them, or +nobody one has ever seen before. Out of La Trappe, which does +not suit a Protestant man, there is perhaps no place where one +can be so perfectly alone. I might study even but, as I said, +there are noises going on; a _last_ desperate spasmodic effort +of building,--a new top-story to the house, out of which is to be +made one "spacious room" (so they call it, though it is under +twenty feet square) where there shall be air _ad libitum,_ light +from the sky, and no _sound,_ not even that of the Cremorne +Cannons, shall find access to me any more! Such is the prophecy; +may the gods grant it! We shall see now in about a month;--then +adieu to mortar-tubs to all Eternity:--I endure the thing, +meanwhile, as well as I can; might run to a certain rural +retreat near by, if I liked at any time; but do not yet: the +worst uproar here is but a trifle to that of German inns, and +horrible squeaking, choking railway trains; and one does not go +to seek this, _this_ is here of its own will, and for a purpose! +Seriously, I had for twelve years had such a sound-proof +inaccessible apartment schemed out in my head; and last year, +under a poor, helpless builder, had finally given it up: but +Chelsea, as London generally, swelling out as if it were mad, +grows every year noisier; a _good_ builder turned up, and with a +last paroxysm of enthusiasm I set him to. My notion is, he will +succeed; in which case, it will be a great possession to me for +the rest of my life. Alas, this is not the kind of _silence_ I +could have coveted, and could once get,--with green fields and +clear skies to accompany it! But one must take such as can be +had,--and thank the gods. Even so, my friend. In the course of +about a year of that garret sanctuary, I hope to have swept away +much litter from my existence: in fact I am already, by dint of +mere obstinate quiescence in such circumstances as there are, +intrinsically growing fairly sounder in nerves. What a business +a poor human being has with those nerves of his, with that crazy +clay tabernacle of his! Enough, enough; there will be all +Eternity to rest in, as Arnauld said: "Why in such a fuss, +little sir?" + +You "apologize" for sending people to me: O you of little faith! +Never dream of such a thing nay, whom _did_ you send? The +Cincinnati Lecturer* I had provided for with Owen; they would +have been glad to hear him, on the Cedar forests, on the pigs +making rattlesnakes into bacon, and the general adipocere +question, under any form, at the Albemarle Street rooms;--and he +never came to hand. As for Miss Bacon, we find her, with her +modest shy dignity, with her solid character and strange +enterprise, a real acquisition; and hope we shall now see more +of her, now that she has come nearer to us to lodge. I have not +in my life seen anything so tragically _quixotic_ as her +Shakespeare enterprise: alas, alas, there can be nothing but +sorrow, toil, and utter disappointment in it for her! I do +cheerfully what I can;--which is far more than she _asks_ of me +(for I have not seen a prouder silent soul);--but there is not +the least possibility of truth in the notion she has taken up: +and the hope of ever proving it, or finding the least document +that countenances it, is equal to that of vanquishing the +windmills by stroke of lance. I am often truly sorry about the +poor lady: but she troubles nobody with her difficulties, with +her theories; she must try the matter to the end, and charitable +souls must further her so far. + +--------- +* Mr. O.M. Mitchell, the astronomer. +--------- + +Clough is settled in his Office; gets familiarized to it rapidly +(he says), and seems to be doing well. I see little of him +hitherto; I did not, and will not, try to influence him in his +choice of countries; but I think he is now likely to continue +here, and here too he may do us some good. Of America, at least +of New England, I can perceive he has brought away an altogether +kindly, almost filial impression,--especially of a certain man +who lives in that section of the Earth. More power to his +elbow!--Thackeray has very rarely come athwart me since his +return: he is a big fellow, soul and body; of many gifts and +qualities (particularly in the Hogarth line, with a dash of +Sterne superadded), of enormous _appetite_ withal, and very +uncertain and chaotic in all points except his _outer breeding,_ +which is fixed enough, and _perfect_ according to the modern +English style. I rather dread explosions in his history. A +_big,_ fierce, weeping, hungry man; not a strong one. _Ay de +mi!_ But I must end, I must end. Your Letter awakened in me, +while reading it, one mad notion. I said to myself: Well, if I +live to finish this Frederic impossibility, or even to fling it +fairly into the fire, why should not I go, in my old days, and +see Concord, Yankeeland, and that man again, after all!--Adieu, +dear friend; all good be with you and yours always. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 11 March, 1854 + +My Dear Carlyle,--The sight of Mr. Samuel Laurence, the day +before yesterday, in New York, and of your head among his +sketches, set me on thinking which had some pain where should be +only cheer. For Mr. Laurence I hailed his arrival, on every +account. I wish to see a good man whom you prize; and I like to +have good Englishmen come to America, which, of all countries, +after their own, has the best claim to them. He promises to come +and see me, and has begun most propitiously in New York. For +you,--I have too much constitutional regard and ---, not to feel +remorse for my short-comings and slow-comings, and I remember the +maxim which the French stole from our Indians,--and it was worth +stealing,--"Let not the grass grow on the path of friendship." +Ah! my brave giant, you can never understand the silence and +forbearances of such as are not giants. To those to whom we owe +affection, let us be dumb until we are strong, though we should +never be strong. I hate mumped and measled lovers. I hate cramp +in all men,--most in myself. + +And yet I should have been pushed to write without Samuel +Laurence; for I lately looked into _Jesuitism,_ a Latter-Day +Pamphlet, and found why you like those papers so well. I think +you have cleared your skirts; it is a pretty good minority of +one, enunciating with brilliant malice what shall be the +universal opinion of the next edition of mankind. And the sanity +was so manifest, that I felt that the over-gods had cleared their +skirts also to this generation, in not leaving themselves without +witness, though without this single voice perhaps I should not +acquit them. Also I pardon the world that reads the book as +though it read it not, when I see your inveterated humors. It +required courage and required conditions that feuilletonists are +not the persons to name or qualify, this writing Rabelais in +1850. And to do this alone.--You must even pitch your tune to +suit yourself. We must let Arctic Navigators and deepsea divers +wear what astonishing coats, and eat what meats--wheat or whale-- +they like, without criticism. + +I read further, sidewise and backwards, in these pamphlets, +without exhausting them. I have not ceased to think of the great +warm heart that sends them forth, and which I, with others, +sometimes tag with satire, and with not being warm enough for +this poor world;--I too,--though I know its meltings to-me-ward. +Then I learned that the newspapers had announced the death of +your mother (which I heard of casually on the Rock River, +Illinois), and that you and your brother John had been with her +in Scotland. I remembered what you had once and again said of +her to me, and your apprehensions of the event which has come. I +can well believe you were grieved. The best son is not enough a +son. My mother died in my house in November, who had lived with +me all my life, and kept her heart and mind clear, and her own, +until the end. It is very necessary that we should have +mothers,--we that read and write,--to keep us from becoming +paper. I had found that age did not make that she should die +without causing me pain. In my journeying lately, when I think +of home the heart is taken out. + +Miss Bacon wrote me in joyful fulness of the cordial kindness and +aid she had found at your hands, and at your wife's; and I have +never thanked you, and much less acknowledged her copious +letter,--copious with desired details. Clough, too, wrote about +you, and I have not written to him since his return to England. +You will see how total is my ossification. Meantime I have +nothing to tell you that can explain this mild palsy. I worked +for a time on my English Notes with a view of printing, but was +forced to leave them to go read some lectures in Philadelphia and +some Western towns. I went out Northwest to great countries +which I had not visited before; rode one day, fault of broken +railroads, in a sleigh, sixty-five miles through the snow, by +Lake Michigan, (seeing how prairies and oak-openings look in +winter,) to reach Milwaukee; "the world there was done up in +large lots," as a settler told me. The farmer, as he is now a +colonist and has drawn from his local necessities great doses of +energy, is interesting, and makes the heroic age for Wisconsin. +He lives on venison and quails. I was made much of, as the only +man of the pen within five hundred miles, and by rarity worth +more than venison and quails. + +Greeley of the _New York Tribune_ is the right spiritual father +of all this region; he prints and disperses one hundred and ten +thousand newspapers in one day,--multitudes of them in these very +parts. He had preceded me, by a few days, and people had flocked +together, coming thirty and forty miles to hear him speak; as +was right, for he does all their thinking and theory for them, +for two dollars a year. Other than Colonists, I saw no man. +"There are no singing birds in the prairie," I truly heard. All +the life of the land and water had distilled no thought. Younger +and better, I had no doubt been tormented to read and speak their +sense for them. Now I only gazed at them and their boundless land. + +One good word closed your letter in September, which ought to +have had an instant reply, namely, that you might come westward +when Frederic was disposed of. Speed Frederic, then, for all +reasons and for this! America is growing furiously, town and +state; new Kansas, new Nebraska looming up in these days, +vicious politicians seething a wretched destiny for them already +at Washington. The politicians shall be sodden, the States +escape, please God! The fight of slave and freeman drawing +nearer, the question is sharply, whether slavery or whether +freedom shall be abolished. Come and see. Wealth, which is +always interesting, for from wealth power refuses to be divorced, +is on a new scale. Californian quartz mountains dumped down in +New York to be repiled architecturally along shore from Canada to +Cuba, and thence west to California again. John Bull interests +you at home, and is all your subject. Come and see the +Jonathanization of John. What, you scorn all this? Well, then, +come and see a few good people, impossible to be seen on any +other shore, who heartily and always greet you. There is a very +serious welcome for you here. And I too shall wake from sleep. +My wife entreats that an invitation shall go from her to you. + +Faithfully yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 8 April, 1854 + +Dear Emerson,--It was a morning not like any other which lay +round it, a morning to be marked white, that one, about a week +ago, when your Letter came to me; a word from you yet again, +after so long a silence! On the whole, I perceive you will not +utterly give up answering me, but will rouse yourself now and +then to a word of human brotherhood on my behalf, so long as we +both continue in this Planet. And I declare, the Heavens will +reward you; and as to me, I will be thankful for what I get, and +submissive to delays and to all things: all things are good +compared with flat want in that respect. It remains true, and +will remain, what I have often told you, that properly there is +no voice in this world which is completely human to me, which +fully understands all I say and with clear sympathy and sense +answers to me, but your voice only. That is a curious fact, and +not quite a joyful one to me. The solitude, the silence of my +poor soul, in the centre of this roaring whirlpool called +Universe, is great, always, and sometimes strange and almost +awful. I have two million talking bipeds without feathers, close +at my elbow, too; and of these it is often hard for me to say +whether the so-called "wise" or the almost professedly foolish +are the more inexpressibly unproductive to me. "Silence, +Silence!" I often say to myself: "Be silent, thou poor fool; +and prepare for that Divine Silence which is now not far!"--On +the whole, write to me whenever you can; and be not weary of +well-doing. + +I have had sad things to do and see since I wrote to you: the +loss of my dear and good old Mother, which could not be spared me +forever, has come more like a kind of total bankruptcy upon me +than might have been expected, considering her age and mine. Oh +those last two days, that last Christmas Sunday! She was a true, +pious, brave, and noble Mother to me; and it is now all over; +and the Past has all become pale and sad and sacred;--and the +all-devouring potency of Death, what we call Death, has never +looked so strange, cruel and unspeakable to me. Nay not _cruel_ +altogether, let me say: huge, profound, _unspeakable,_ that is +the word.--You too have lost your good old Mother, who stayed +with you like mine, clear to the last: alas, alas, it is the +oldest Law of Nature; and it comes on every one of us with a +strange originality, as if it had never happened before.-- +Forward, however; and no more lamenting; no more than cannot be +helped. "Paradise is under the shadow of our swords," said the +Emir: "Forward!"-- + +I make no way in my Prussian History; I bore and dig toilsomely +through the unutterablest mass of dead rubbish, which is not even +English, which is German and inhuman; and hardly from ten tons +of learned inanity is there to be riddled one old rusty nail. +For I have been back as far as Pytheas who, first of speaking +creatures, beheld the Teutonic Countries; and have questioned +all manner of extinct German shadows,--who answer nothing but +mumblings. And on the whole Fritz himself is not sufficiently +divine to me, far from it; and I am getting old, and heavy of +heart;--and in short, it oftenest seems to me I shall never write +any word about that matter; and have again fairly got into the +element of the IMPOSSIBLE. Very well: could I help it? I can +at least be honestly silent; and "bear my indigence with +dignity," as you once said. The insuperable difficulty of +_Frederic_ is, that he, the genuine little ray of Veritable and +Eternal that was in him, lay imbedded in the putrid Eighteenth +Century, such an Ocean of sordid nothingness, shams, and +scandalous hypocrisies, as never weltered in the world before; +and that in everything I can find yet written or recorded of him, +he still, to all intents and purposes, most tragically _lies_ +THERE;--and ought not to lie there, if any use is ever to be had +of him, or at least of _writing_ about him; for as to him, he +with his work is safe enough to us, far elsewhere.--Pity me, pity +me; I know not on what hand to turn; and have such a Chaos +filling all my Earth and Heaven as was seldom seen in British or +Foreign Literature! Add to which, the Sacred Entity, Literature +itself, is not growing more venerable to me, but less and ever +less: good Heavens, I feel often as if there were no madder set +of bladders tumbling on the billows of the general Bedlam at this +moment than even the Literary ones,--dear at twopence a gross, I +should say, unless one could _annihilate_ them by purchase on +those easy terms! But do not tell this in Gath; let it be a sad +family secret. + +I smile, with a kind of grave joy, over your American +speculations, and wild dashing portraitures of things as they are +with you; and recognize well, under your light caricature, the +outlines of a right true picture, which has often made me sad and +grim in late years. Yes, I consider that the "Battle of Freedom +and Slavery" is very far from ended; and that the fate of poor +"Freedom" in the quarrel is very questionable indeed! Alas, +there is but one _Slavery,_ as I wrote somewhere; and that, I +think, is mounting towards a height, which may bring strokes to +bear upon it again! Meanwhile, patience; for us there is +nothing else appointed.--Tell me, however, what has become of +your Book on England? We shall really be obliged to you for +that. A piece of it went through all the Newspapers, some years +ago; which was really unique for its quaint kindly insight, +humor, and other qualities; like an etching by Hollar or Durer, +amid the continents of vile smearing which are called "pictures" at +present. Come on, Come on; give us the Book, and don't loiter!-- + +Miss Bacon has fled away to _St. Alban's_ (the _Great_ Bacon's +place) five or six months ago; and is there working out her +Shakespeare Problem, from the depths of her own mind, disdainful +apparently, or desperate and careless, of all _evidence_ from +Museums or Archives; I have not had an answer from her since +before Christmas, and have now lost her address. Poor Lady: I +sometimes silently wish she were safe home again; for truly +there can no madder enterprise than her present one be well +figured. Adieu, my Friend; I must stop short here. Write soon, +if you have any charity. Good be with you ever. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLVI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 17 April, 1855 + +My Dear Friend,--On this delicious spring day, I will obey the +beautiful voices of the winds, long disobeyed, and address you; +nor cloud the hour by looking at the letters in my drawer to know +if a twelvemonth has been allowed to elapse since this tardy +writing was due. Mr. Everett sent me one day a letter he had +received from you, containing a kind message to me, which gave me +pleasure and pain. I returned the letter with thanks, and with +promises I would sin no more. Instantly, I was whisked, by "the +stormy wing of Fate," out of my chain, and whirled, like a dry +leaf, through the State of New York. + +Now at home again, I read English Newspapers, with all the world, +and claim an imaginary privilege over my compatriots, that I +revolve therein my friend's large part. Ward said to me +yesterday, that Carlyle's star was daily rising. For C. had said +years ago, when all men thought him mad, that which the rest of +mortals, including the Times Newspaper, have at last got near +enough to see with eyes, and therefore to believe. And one day, +in Philadelphia, you should have heard the wise young Philip +Randolph defend you against objections of mine. But when I have +such testimony, I say to myself, the high-seeing austerely +exigent friend whom I elected, and who elected me, twenty years +and more ago, finds me heavy and silent, when all the world +elects and loves him. Yet I have not changed. I have the same +pride in his genius, the same sympathy with the Genius that +governs his, the old love with the old limitations, though love +and limitation be all untold. And I see well what a piece of +Providence he is, how material he is to the times, which must +always have a solo Soprano to balance the roar of the Orchestra. +The solo sings the theme; the orchestra roars antagonistically +but follows.--And have I not put him into my Chapter of "English +Spiritual Tendencies," with all thankfulness to the Eternal +Creator,--though the chapter lie unborn in a trunk? + +'T is fine for us to excuse ourselves, and patch with promises. +We shall do as before, and science is a fatalist. I follow, I +find, the fortunes of my Country, in my privatest ways. An +American is pioneer and man of all work, and reads up his +newspaper on Saturday night, as farmers and foresters do. We +admire the [Greek], and mean to give our boys the grand habit; +but we only sketch what they may do. No leisure except for the +strong, the nimble have none.--I ought to tell you what I do, or +I ought to have to tell you what I have done. But what can I? +the same concession to the levity of the times, the noise of +America comes again. I have even run on wrong topics for my +parsimonious Muse, and waste my time from my true studies. +England I see as a roaring volcano of Fate, which threatens to +roast or smother the poor literary Plinys that come too near for +mere purpose of reporting. + +I have even fancied you did me a harm by the valued gift of +Antony Wood;--which, and the like of which, I take a lotophagous +pleasure in eating. Yet this is measuring after appearance, +measuring on hours and days; the true measure is quite other, +for life takes its color and quality not from the days, but the +dawns. The lucid intervals are like drowning men's moments, +equivalent to the foregoing years. Besides, Nature uses us. We +live but little for ourselves, a good deal for our children, and +strangers. Each man is one more lump of clay to hold the world +together. It is in the power of the Spirit meantime to make him +rich reprisals,--which he confides will somewhere be done.--Ah, +my friend, you have better things to send me word of, than +these musings of indolence. Is Frederic recreated? Is Frederic +the Great? + +Forget my short-comings and write to me. Miss Bacon sends me +word, again and again, of your goodness. Against hope and sight +she must be making a remarkable book. I have a letter from her, +a few days ago, written in perfect assurance of success! Kindest +remembrances to your wife and to your brother. + +Yours faithfully, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 18 May, 1855 + +Dear Emerson,--Last Sunday, Clough was here; and we were +speaking about you, (much to your discredit, you need not doubt,) +and how stingy in the way of Letters you were grown; when, next +morning, your Letter itself made its appearance. Thanks, thanks. +You know not in the least, I perceive, nor can be made to +understand at all, how indispensable your Letters are to me. How +you are, and have for a long time been, the one of all the sons +of Adam who, I felt, completely understood what I was saying; +and answered with a truly _human_ voice,--inexpressibly +consolatory to a poor man, in his lonesome pilgrimage, towards +the evening of the day! So many voices are not human; but more +or less bovine, porcine, canine; and one's soul dies away in +sorrow in the sound of them, and is reduced to a dialogue with +the "Silences," which is of a very abstruse nature!--Well, +whether you write to me or not, I reserve to myself the privilege +of writing to you, so long as we both continue in this world! As +the beneficent Presences vanish from me, one after the other, +those that remain are the more precious, and I will not part with +them, not with the chief of them, beyond all. + +This last year has been a grimmer lonelier one with me than any I +can recollect for a long time. I did not go to the Country at +all in summer or winter; refused even my Christmas at The Grange +with the Ashburtons,--it was too sad an anniversary for me;--I +have sat here in my garret, wriggling and wrestling on the worst +terms with a Task that I cannot do, that generally seems to me +not worth doing, and yet _must_ be _done._ These are truly the +terms. I never had such a business in my life before. Frederick +himself is a pretty little man to me, veracious, courageous, +invincible in his small sphere; but he does not rise into the +empyrean regions, or kindle my heart round him at all; and his +history, upon which there are wagon-loads of dull bad books, is +the most dislocated, unmanageably incoherent, altogether dusty, +barren and beggarly production of the modern Muses as given +hitherto. No man of _genius_ ever saw him with eyes, except +twice Mirabeau, for half an hour each time. And the wretched +Books have no _indexes,_ no precision of detail; and I am far +away from Berlin and the seat of information;--and, in brief, +shall be beaten miserably with this unwise enterprise in my old +days; _and_ (in fine) will consent to be so, and get through it +if I can before I die. This of obstinacy is the one quality I +still show; all my other qualities (hope, among them) often seem +to have pretty much taken leave of me; but it is necessary to +hold by this last. Pray for me; I will complain no more at +present. General Washington gained the freedom of America-- +chiefly by this respectable quality I talk of; nor can a history +of Frederick be written, in Chelsea in the year 1855, except as +_against_ hope, and by planting yourself upon it in an extremely +dogged manner. + +We are all wool-gathering here, with wide eyes and astonished +minds, at a singular rate, since you heard last from me! +"Balaklava," I can perceive, is likely to be a substantive in the +English language henceforth: it in truth expresses compendiously +what an earnest mind will experience everywhere in English life; +if his soul rise at all above cotton and scrip, a man has to +pronounce it all a _Balaklava_ these many years. A Balaklava now +_yielding,_ under the pressure of rains and unexpected transit of +heavy wagons; champing itself down into mere mud-gulfs,--towards +the bottomless Pool, if some flooring be not found. To me it is +not intrinsically a new phenomenon, only an extremely hideous +one. _Altum Silentium,_ what else can I reply to it at present? +The Turk War, undertaken under pressure of the mere mobility, +seemed to me an enterprise worthy of Bedlam from the first; and +this method of carrying it on, _without_ any general, or with a +mere sash and cocked-hat for one, is of the same block of stuff. +_Ach Gott!_ Is not Anarchy, and parliamentary eloquence instead +of work, continued for half a century everywhere, a beautiful +piece of business? We are in alliance with Louis Napoleon (a +gentleman who has shown only _housebreaker_ qualities hitherto, +and is required now to show heroic ones, _or_ go to the Devil); +and under Marechal Saint-Arnaud (who was once a dancing-master in +this city, and continued a _thief_ in all cities), a Commander of +the Playactor-Pirate description, resembling a _General_ as +Alexander Dumas does Dante Alighieri,--we have got into a very +strange problem indeed!--But there is something almost grand in +the stubborn thickside patience and persistence of this English +People; and I do not question but they will work themselves +through in one fashion or another; nay probably, get a great +deal of benefit out of this astonishing slap on the nose to their +self-complacency before all the world. They have not _done_ yet, +I calculate, by any manner of means: they are, however, +admonished in an ignominious and convincing manner, amid the +laughter of nations, that they are altogether on the wrong road +this great while (two hundred years, as I have been calculating +often),--and I shudder to think of the plunging and struggle they +will have to get into the approximately right one again. Pray +for them also, poor stupid overfed heavy-laden souls!--Before my +paper quite end, I must in my own name, and that of a select +company of others, inquire rigorously of R.W.E. why he does not +_give_ us that little Book on England he has promised so long? I +am very serious in saying, I myself want much to see it;--and +that I can see no reason why we all should not, without delay. +Bring it out, I say, and print it, _tale quale._ You will never +get it in the least like what _you_ wish it, clearly no! But I +venture to warrant, it is good enough,--far too good for the +readers that are to get it. Such a pack of blockheads, and +disloyal and bewildered unfortunates who know not their right +hand from their left, as fill me with astonishment, and are more +and more forfeiting all respect from me. Publish the Book, I +say; let us have it and so have done! Adieu, my dear friend, +for this time. I had a thousand things more to write, but have +wasted my sheet, and must end. I will take another before long, +whatever you do. In my lonely thoughts you are never long +absent: _Valete_ all of you at Concord! + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 6 May, 1856 + +Dear Carlyle,--There is no escape from the forces of time and +life, and we do not write letters to the gods or to our friends, +but only to attorneys, landlords, and tenants. But the planes +and platforms on which all stand remain the same, and we are ever +expecting the descent of the heavens, which is to put us into +familiarity with the first named. When I ceased to write to you +for a long time, I said to myself,--If anything really good +should happen here,--any stroke of good sense or virtue in our +politics, or of great sense in a book,--I will send it on the +instant to the formidable man; but I will not repeat to him +every month, that there are no news. Thank me for my resolution, +and for keeping it through the long night.--One book, last +summer, came out in New York, a nondescript monster which yet had +terrible eyes and buffalo strength, and was indisputably +American,--which I thought to send you; but the book throve so +badly with the few to whom I showed it, and wanted good morals so +much, that I never did. Yet I believe now again, I shall. It is +called _Leaves of Grass,_--was written and printed by a +journeyman printer in Brooklyn, New York, named Walter Whitman; +and after you have looked into it, if you think, as you may, that +it is only an auctioneer's inventory of a warehouse, you can +light your pipe with it. + +By tomorrow's steamer goes Mrs. --- to Liverpool, and to +Switzerland and Germany, by the advice of physicians, and I +cannot let her go without praying you to drop your pen, and shut +up German history for an hour, and extend your walk to her +chambers, wherever they may be. _There's_ a piece of +republicanism for you to see and hear! That person was, ten or +fifteen years ago, the loveliest of women, and her speech and +manners may still give you some report of the same. She has +always lived with good people, and in her position is a centre of +what is called good society, wherein her large heart makes a +certain glory and refinement. She is one of nature's ladies, and +when I hear her tell I know not what stories of her friends, or +her children, or her pensioners, I find a pathetic eloquence +which I know not where to match. But I suppose you shall never +hear it. Every American is a little displaced in London, and, no +doubt, her company has grown to her. Her husband is a banker +connected in business with your ---, and is a man of elegant +genius and tastes, and his house is a resort for fine people. +Thorwaldsen distinguished Mrs. --- in Rome, formerly, by his +attentions. Powers the sculptor made an admirable bust of her; +Clough and Thackeray will tell you of her. Jenny Lind, like the +rest, was captivated by her, and was married at her house. Is +not Henry James in London? he knows her well. If Tennyson comes +to London, whilst she is there, he should see her for his "Lays +of Good Women." Now please to read these things to the wise and +kind ears of Jane Carlyle, and ask her if I have done wrong in +giving my friend a letter to her? I could not ask more than that +each of those ladies might appear to the other what each has +appeared to me. + +I saw Thackeray, in the winter, and he said he would come and see +me here, in April or May; but he is still, I believe, in the +South and West. Do not believe me for my reticency less hungry +for letters. I grieve at the want and loss, and am about writing +again, that I may hear from you. + +Ever affectionately yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 20 July, 1856 + +Dear Emerson;--Welcome was your Letter to me, after the long +interval; as welcome as any human Letter could now well be. +These many months and years I have been sunk in what disastrous +vortexes of foreign wreck you know, till I am fallen sick and +almost broken-hearted, and my life (if it were not this one +interest, of doing a problem which I see to be impossible, and of +smallish value if found doable!) is burdensome and without +meaning to me. It is so rarely I hear the voice of a magnanimous +Brother Man addressing any word to me: ninety-nine hundredths of +the Letters I get are impertinent clutchings of me by the button, +concerning which the one business is, How to get handsomely loose +again; What to say that shall soonest _end_ the intrusion,--if +saying Nothing will not be the best way. Which last I often in +my sorrow have recourse to, at what ever known risks. "We must +pay our tribute to Time": ah yes, yes;--and yet I will believe, +so long as we continue together in this sphere of things there +will always be a _potential_ Letter coming out of New England for +me, and the world not fallen irretrievably dumb.--The best is, I +am about going into Scotland, in two days, into deep solitude, +for a couple of months beside the Solway sea: I absolutely need +to have the dust blown out of me, and my mad nerves rested (there +is nothing else quite gone wrong): this unblest _Life of +Frederick_ is now actually to get along into the Printer's hand; +--a good Book being impossible upon it, there shall a bad one be +done, and one's poor existence rid of it:--for which great object +two months of voluntary torpor are considered the fair +preliminary. In another year's time, (if the Fates allow me to +live,) I expect to have got a great deal of rubbish swept into +chaos again. Unlucky it should ever have been dug up, much +of it!-- + +Your Mrs. --- should have had our best welcome, for the sake of +him who sent her, had there been nothing more: but the Lady +never showed face at all; nor could I for a long time get any +trace--and then it was a most faint and distant one as if by +_double_ reflex--of her whereabout: too distant, too difficult +for me, who do not make a call once in the six months lately. I +did mean to go in quest (never had an _address_); but had not +yet rallied for the Enterprise, when Mrs. --- herself wrote that +she had been unwell, that she was going directly for Paris, and +would see us on her return. So be it:--pray only I may not be +absent next! I have not seen or distinctly heard of Miss Bacon +for a year and half past: I often ask myself, what has become of +that poor Lady, and wish I knew of her being safe among her +friends again. I have even lost the address (which at any rate +was probably not a lasting one); perhaps I could find it by the +eye,--but it is five miles away; and my _non-plus-ultra_ for +years past is not above half that distance. Heigho! + +My time is all up and more; and Chaos come again is lying round +me, in the shape of "packing," in a thousand shapes!--Browning is +coming tonight to take leave. Do you know Browning at all? He +is abstruse, but worth knowing.--And what of the _Discourse on +England_ by a certain man? Shame! We always hear of it again as +"out"; and it continues obstinately _in._ Adieu, my friend. + +Ever yours, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLX. Carlyle to Emerson + +The Gill, Cummertrees, Annan, N.B. +28 August, 1856 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter alighted here yesterday;* like a +winged Mercury, bringing "airs from Heaven" (in a sense) along +with his news. I understand very well your indisposition to +write; we must conform to it, as to the law of _Chronos_ (oldest +of the gods); but I will murmur always, "It is such a pity as of +almost no other man!"--You are citizen of a "Republic," and +perhaps fancy yourself republican in an eminent degree: +nevertheless I have remarked there is no man of whom I am so +certain always to get something _kingly:_--and whenever your huge +inarticulate America gets settled into _kingdoms,_ of the New +Model, fit for these Ages which are all upon the _Moult_ just +now, and dreadfully like going to the Devil in the interim,--then +will America, and all nations through her, owe the man Emerson a +_debt,_ far greater than either they or he are in the least aware +of at present! That I consider (for myself) to be an ascertained +fact. For which I myself at least am thankful and have long been. + +--------- +* It is missing now. +--------- + +It pleases me much to know that this English [book], so long +twinkling in our expectations and always drawn back again, is at +last verily to appear: I wish I could get hold of my copy: +there is no Book that would suit me better just now. But we must +wait for four weeks till we get back to Chelsea,--unless I call +find some trusty hand to extract it from the rubbish that will +have accumulated there, and forward it by post. You speak as if +there were something dreadful said of my own sacred self in that +Book: Courage, my Friend, it will be a most miraculous +occurrence to meet with anything said by you that does me _ill;_ +whether the immediate taste of it be sweet or bitter, I will take +it with gratitude, you may depend,--nay even with pleasure, what +perhaps is still more incredible. But an old man deluged for +half a century with the brutally nonsensical vocables of his +fellow-creatures (which he grows to regard soon as _rain,_ "rain +of frogs" or the like, and lifts his umbrella against with +indifference),--such an old gentleman, I assure you, is grateful +for a word that he can recognize perennial sense in; as in this +case is his sure hope. And so be the little Book thrice welcome; +and let all England understand (as some choice portion of England +will) that there has not been a man talking about us these very +many years whose words are worth the least attention in comparison. + +"Post passing!" I must end, in mid-course; so much still +untouched upon. Thanks for Sampson & Co., and let them go their +course upon me. If I can see Mrs. --- about the end of September +or after, I shall be right glad:--but I fear she will have fled +before that?-- + +I am here in my native Country, riding, seabathing, living on +country diet,--uttering no word,--now into the fifth week; have +had such a "retreat" as no La Trappe hardly could have offered +me. A "retreat" _without cilices,_ thistle-mattresses; and with +_silent_ devotions (if any) instead of blockhead spoken ones to +the Virgin and others! There is still an Excursion to the +Highlands ahead, which cannot be avoided;--then home again to +_peine forte et dure._ Good be with you always, dear friend. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 2 December, 1856 + +Dear Emerson,--I am really grieved to have hurt the feelings of +Mr. Phillips;* a gentleman to whom I, on my side, had no +feelings but those of respect and good will! I pray you smooth +him down again, by all wise methods, into at least good-natured +indifference to me. He may depend upon it I could not mean to +irritate him; there lay no gain for me in that! Nor is there +anything of business left now between us. It is doubly and +trebly evident those Stereotype Plates are not to him worth their +prime cost here, still less, their prime cost plus any vestige of +definite motive for me to concern myself in them:--whereupon the +Project falls on its face, and vanishes forever, with apologies +all round. For as to that other method, that is a game I never +thought, and never should think of playing at! You may also tell +him this little Biographical fact, if you think it will any way +help. Some ten or more years ago, I made a similar Bargain with +a New York House (known to you, and now I believe extinct): "10" +or something "percent," of selling price on the Copies Printed, +was to be my return--not for four or five hundred pounds money +laid out, but for various things I did, which gratis would by no +means have been done; in fine, it was their own Offer, made and +accepted in due form; "10 percent on the copies printed." + +--------- +* This refers to a proposed arrangement, which fell through, for +the publication in America by Messrs. Phillips and Sampson, of +Boston, of a complete edition of Carlyle's works, to be printed +from the stereotype plates of the English edition then in course +of issue by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. +--------- + +And how many were "printed," thinks Mr. Phillips? I saw one set; +dreadfully ugly Books, errors in every page;--and to this hour I +have never heard of any other! The amount remains zero net; and +it would appear there was simply one copy "printed," the ugly one +sent to myself, which I instantly despatched again somewhither! +On second thought perhaps you had better _not_ tell Mr. Phillips +this story, at least not in this way. _His_ integrity I would +not even question by insinuation, nor need I, at the point where +we now are. I perceive he sees in extraordinary brilliancy of +illumination his own side of the bargain; and thinks me ignorant +of several things which I am well enough informed about. In +brief, make a perfect peace between us, O friend, and man of +peace; and let the wampums be all wrapped up, and especially the +tomahawks entirely buried, and the thing end forever! To you +also I owe apologies; but not to you do I pay them, knowing from +of old what you are to me. Enough, enough! + +I got your Book by post in the Highlands; and had such a day +over it as falls rarely to my lot! Not for seven years and more +have I got hold of such a Book;--Book by a real man, with eyes in +his head; nobleness, wisdom, humor, and many other things, in +the heart of him. Such Books do not turn up often in the decade, +in the century. In fact I believe it to be worth all the Books +ever written by New England upon Old. Franklin might have +written such a thing (in his own way); no other since! We do +very well with it here, and the wise part of us _best._ That +Chapter on the Church is inimitable; "the Bishop asking a +troublesome gentleman to take wine,"--you should see the kind of +grin it awakens here on our best kind of faces. Excellent the +manner of that, and the matter too dreadfully _true_ in every +part. I do not much seize your idea in regard to "Literature," +though I do details of it, and will try again. Glad of that too, +even in its half state; not "sorry" at _any_ part of it,--you +Sceptic! On the whole, write _again,_ and ever again at greater +length: there lies your only fault to me. And yet I know, that +also is a right noble one, and rare in our day. + +O my friend, save always for me some corner in your memory; I am +very lonely in these months and years,--sunk to the centre of the +Earth, like to be throttled by the Pythons and Mudgods in my old +days;--but shall get out again, too; and be a better boy! No +"hurry" equals mine, and it is in permanence. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 17 May, 1858 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I see no way for you to avoid the Americans but +to come to America. For, first or last, we are all embarking, +and all steering straight to your door. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph +Longworth of Cincinnati are going abroad on their travels. +Possibly, the name is not quite unknown to you. Their father, +Nicholas Longworth, is one of the founders of the city of +Cincinnati, a bigger town than Boston, where he is a huge land +lord and planter, and patron of sculptors and painters. And his +family are most favorably known to all dwellers and strangers, in +the Ohio Valley, as people who have well used their great wealth. +His chief merit is to have introduced a systematic culture of the +wine-grape and wine manufacture, by the importing and settlement +of German planters in that region, and the trade is thriving to +the general benefit. His son Joseph is a well-bred gentleman of +literary tastes, whose position and good heart make him largely +hospitable. His wife is a very attractive and excellent woman, +and they are good friends of mine. It seems I have at some +former time told her that, when she went to England, she should +see you. And they are going abroad, soon, for the first time. +If you are in London, you must be seen of them. + +But I hailed even this need of taxing once more your often taxed +courtesy, as a means to break up my long contumacy to-you-ward. +Please let not the wires be rusted out, so that we cannot weld +them again, and let me feel the subtle fluid streaming strong. +Tell me what is become of _Frederic,_ for whose appearance I have +watched every week for months? I am better ready for him, since +one or two books about Voltaire, Maupertuis, and company, fell in +my way. + +Yet that book will not come which I most wish to read, namely, +the culled results, the quintessence of private conviction, a +_liber veritatis,_ a few sentences, hints of the final moral you +drew from so much penetrating inquest into past and present men. +All writing is necessitated to be exoteric, and written to a +human should instead of to the terrible is. And I say this to +you, because you are the truest and bravest of writers. Every +writer is a skater, who must go partly where he would, and +partly, where the skates carry him; or a sailor, who can only +land where sails can be safely blown. The variations to be +allowed for in the surveyor's compass are nothing like so large +as those that must be allowed for in every book. And a +friendship of old gentlemen who have got rid of many illusions, +survived their ambition, and blushes, and passion for euphony, +and surface harmonies, and tenderness for their accidental +literary stores, but have kept all their curiosity and awe +touching the problems of man and fate and the Cause of causes,--a +friendship of old gentlemen of this fortune is looking more +comely and profitable than anything I have read of love. Such a +dream flatters my incapacities for conversation, for we can all +play at monosyllables, who cannot attempt the gay pictorial +panoramic styles. + +So, if ever I hear that you have betrayed the first symptom of +age, that your back is bent a twentieth of an inch from the +perpendicular, I shall hasten to believe you are shearing your +prodigal overgrowths, and are calling in your troops to the +citadel, and I may come in the first steamer to drop in of +evenings and hear the central monosyllables. + +Be good now again, and send me quickly--though it be the shortest +autograph certificate of....* + +-------- +* The end of this letter is lost. +-------- + + + +CLXIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 2 June, 1858 + +Dear Emerson,--Glad indeed I am to hear of you on any terms, on +any subject. For the last eighteen months I have pretty much +ceased all human correspondence,--writing no Note that was not in +a sense wrung from me; my one society the _Nightmares_ (Prussian +and other) all that while:--but often and often the image of you, +and the thoughts of old days between us, has risen sad upon me; +and I have waited to get loose from the Nightmares to appeal to +you again,--to edacious Time and you. Most likely in a couple of +weeks you would have heard from me again at any rate.--Your +friends shall be welcome to me; no friend of yours can be other +at any time. Nor in fact did anybody ever sent by you prove +other than pleasant in this house, so pray no apologies on that +small score.--If only these Cincinnati Patricians can find me +here when they come? For I am off to the deepest solitudes +discoverable (native Scotland probably) so soon as I can shake +the final tag rags of Printer people off me;--"surely within +three weeks now!" I say to myself. But I shall be back, too, if +all prosper; and your Longworths will be back; and Madam will +stand to her point, I hope. + +That book on Friedrich of Prussia--first half of it, two swoln +unlovely volumes, which treat mainly of his Father, &c., and +leave him at his accession--is just getting out of my hands. One +packet more of Proofs, and I have done with it,--thanks to all +the gods! No job approaching in ugliness to it was ever cut out +for me; nor had I any motive to go on, except the sad negative +one, "Shall we be beaten in our old days, then?"--But it has +thoroughly humbled me,--trampled me down into the _mud,_ there to +wrestle with the accumulated stupidities of Mankind, German, +English, French, and other, for _all_ have borne a hand in these +sad centuries;--and here I emerge at last, not _killed,_ but +almost as good. Seek not to look at the Book,--nay in fact it is +"not to be _published_ till September" (so the man of affairs +settles with me yesterday, "owing to the political &c., to the +season," &c.); my only stipulation was that in ten days I should +be utterly out of it,--not to hear of it again till the Day of +Judgment, and if possible not even then! In fact it is a bad +book, poor, misshapen, feeble, _nearly_ worthless (thanks to +_past_ generations and to me); and my one excuse is, I could not +make it better, all the world having played such a game with it. +Well, well!--How true is that you say about the skater; and the +rider too depending on his vehicles, on his roads, on his et +ceteras! Dismally true have I a thousand times felt it, in these +late operations; never in any so much. And in short the +business of writing has altogether become contemptible to me; +and I am become confirmed in the notion that nobody ought to +write,--unless sheer Fate force him to do it;--and then he ought +(if _not_ of the mountebank genus) to beg to be shot rather. +That is deliberately my opinion,--or far nearer it than you +will believe. + +Once or twice I caught some tone of you in some American +Magazine; utterances highly noteworthy to me; in a sense, the +only thing that is _speech_ at all among my fellow-creatures in +this time. For the years that remain, I suppose we must continue +to grumble out some occasional utterance of that kind: what can +we do, at this late stage? But in the _real_ "Model Republic," +it would have been different with two good boys of this kind!-- + +Though shattered and trampled down to an immense degree, I do not +think any bones are broken yet,--though age truly is here, and +you may engage your berth in the steamer whenever you like. In a +few months I expect to be sensibly improved; but my poor Wife +suffers sadly the last two winters; and I am much distressed by +that item of our affairs. Adieu, dear Emerson: I have lost many +things; let me not lose you till I must in some way! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +P.S. If you read the Newspapers (which I carefully abstain from +doing) they will babble to you about Dickens's "Separation from +Wife," &c., &c.; fact of Separation I believe is true; but all +the rest is mere lies and nonsense. No crime or misdemeanor +specifiable on either side; _unhappy_ together, these good many +years past, and they at length end it.--Sulzer said, "Men are by +nature _good._" "Ach, mein lieber Sulzer, Er kennt nicht diese +verdammte Race," ejaculated Fritz, at hearing such an axiom. + + + + +CLXIII.* Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 9 April, 1859 + +Dear Emerson,--Long months ago there was sent off for you a copy +of _Friedrich_ of Prussia, two big red volumes (for which Chapman +the Publisher had found some "safe, swift" vehicle); and _now_ I +have reason to fear they are still loitering somewhere, or at +least have long loitered sorrow on them! This is to say: If you +have not _yet_ got them, address a line to "Saml. F. Flower, Esq, +Librarian of Antiquarian Society, _Worcester,_ Mass." (forty +miles from you, they say), and that will at once bring them. In +the Devil's name! I never in my life was so near choked; +swimming in this mother of Dead Dogs, and a long spell of it +still ahead! I profoundly _pity myself_ (if no one else does). +You shall hear of me again if I survive,--but really that is +getting beyond a joke with me, and I ought to hold my peace (even +to you), and swim what I can. Your little touch of Human Speech +on _Burns'_* was charming; had got into the papers here (and +been clipt out by me) before your copy came, and has gone far and +wide since. Newberg was to give it me in German, from the +_Allgemeine Zeitung,_ but lost the leaf. Adieu, my Friend; very +dear to me, tho' dumb. + + --T. Carlyle (in such haste as seldom was).** + +--------- +* Emerson's fine speech was made at the celebration of the Burns +Centenary, Boston, January 25, 1859. See his _Miscellanies_ +(Works, vol. xi.), p. 363. + +** The preceding letter was discovered in 1893, in a little +package of letters put aside by Mr. Emerson and marked "Autographs." +--------- + + + + +CLXIV. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 1 May, 1859 + +Dear Carlyle,--Some three weeks ago came to me a note from Mr. +Haven of Worcester, announcing the arrival there of "King +Friedrich," and, after a fortnight, the good book came to my +door. A week later, your letter arrived. I was heartily glad to +get the crimson Book itself. I had looked for it with the first +ships. As it came not, I had made up my mind to that hap also. +It was quite fair: I had disentitled myself. He, the true +friend, had every right to punish me for my sluggish contumacy,-- +backsliding, too, after penitence. So I read with resignation +our blue American reprint, and I enclose to you a leaf from my +journal at the time, which leaf I read afterwards in one of my +lectures at the Music Hall in Boston. But the book came from the +man himself. He did not punish me. He is loyal, but royal as +well, and, I have always noted, has a whim for dealing _en grand +monarque._ The book came, with its irresistible inscription, so +that I am all tenderness and all but tears. The book too is +sovereignly written. I think you the true inventor of the +stereoscope, as having exhibited that art in style, long before +we had heard of it in drawing. + +------- +* This letter and the Extract from the Diary are printed from a +copy of the original supplied to me by the kindness of Mr. +Alexander Ireland, who first printed a portion of the letter in +his "Ralph Waldo Emerson, a Biographical Sketch," London, 1882. +One or two words missing in the copy are inserted from the rough +draft, which, as usual, varies in minor points from the letter +as sent. +-------- + +The letter came also. Every child of mine knows from far that +handwriting, and brings it home with speed. I read without alarm +the pathetical hints of your sad plight in the German labyrinth. +I know too well what invitations and assurance brought you in +there, to fear any lack of guides to bring you out. More +presence of mind and easy change from the microscopic to the +telescopic view does not exist. I await peacefully your issue +from your pretended afflictions. + +What to tell you of my coop and byre? Ah! you are a very poor +fellow, and must be left with your glory. You hug yourself on +missing the illusion of children, and must be pitied as having +one glittering toy the less. I am a victim all my days to +certain graces of form and behavior, and can never come into +equilibrium. Now I am fooled by my own young people, and grow +old contented. The heedless children suddenly take the keenest +hold on life, and foolish papas cling to the world on their +account, as never on their own. Out of sympathy, we _make +believe_ to value the prizes of their ambition and hope. My, two +girls, pupils once or now of Agassiz, are good, healthy, +apprehensive, decided young people, who love life. My boy +divides his time between Cicero and cricket, knows his boat, the +birds, and Walter Scott--verse and prose, through and through,-- +and will go to College next year. Sam Ward and I tickled each +other the other day, in looking over a very good company of young +people, by finding in the new comers a marked improvement on +their parents. There, I flatter myself, I see some emerging of +our people from the prison of their politics. The insolvency of +slavery shows and stares, and we shall perhaps live to see that +putrid Black-vomit extirpated by mere dying and planting. + +I am so glad to find myself speaking once more to you, that I +mean to persist in the practice. Be as glad as you have been. +You and I shall not know each other on this platform as long as +we have known. A correspondence even of twenty-five years should +not be disused unless through some fatal event. Life is too +short, and, with all our poetry and morals, too indigent to allow +such sacrifices. Eyes so old and wary, and which have learned to +look on so much, are gathering an hourly harvest,--and I cannot +spare what on noble terms is offered me. + +With congratulations to Jane Carlyle on the grandeur of the Book, + +Yours affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +Extract From Diary* + +Here has come into the country, three or four months ago, a +_History of Frederick,_ infinitely the wittiest book that ever +was written,--a book that one would think the English people +would rise up in mass and thank the author for, by cordial +acclamation, and signify, by crowning him with oakleaves, their +joy that such a head existed among them, and sympathizing and +much-reading America would make a new treaty or send a Minister +Extraordinary to offer congratulation of honoring delight to +England, in acknowledgment of this donation,--a book holding so +many memorable and heroic facts, working directly on practice; +with new heroes, things unvoiced before;--the German Plutarch +(now that we have exhausted the Greek and Roman and British +Plutarchs), with a range, too, of thought and wisdom so large and +so elastic, not so much applying as inosculating to every need +and sensibility of man, that we do not read a stereotype page, +rather we see the eyes of the writer looking into ours, mark his +behavior, humming, chuckling, with under-tones and trumpet-tones +and shrugs, and long-commanding glances, stereoscoping every +figure that passes, and every hill, river, road, hummock, and +pebble in the long perspective. With its wonderful new system of +mnemonics, whereby great and insignificant men are ineffaceably +ticketed and marked and modeled in memory by what they were, had, +and did; and withal a book that is a Judgment Day, for its moral +verdict on the men and nations and manners of modern times. + +--------- +* In the first edition, this extract was printed from the +original Diary; it is now printed according to the copy +sent abroad. +-------- + +And this book makes no noise; I have hardly seen a notice of it +in any newspaper or journal, and you would think there was no +such book. I am not aware that Mr. Buchanan has sent a special +messenger to Great Cheyne Row, Chelsea, or that Mr. Dallas has +been instructed to assure Mr. Carlyle of his distinguished +consideration. But the secret wits and hearts of men take note +of it, not the less surely. They have said nothing lately in +praise of the air, or of fire, or of the blessing of love, and +yet, I suppose, they are sensible of these, and not less of this +book, which is like these. + + + + +CLXV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 16 April, 1860 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Can booksellers break the seal which the gods +do not, and put me in communication again with the loyalest of +men? On the ground of Mr. Wight's honest proposal to give you a +benefit from his edition,* I, though unwilling, allowed him to +copy the Daguerre of your head. The publishers ask also some +expression of your good will to their work.... + +-------- +* Mr. O.W. Wight of New York, an upright "able editor," who, had +just made arrangements for the publication of a very satisfactory +edition of Carlyle's _Miscellaneous Essays._ +-------- + +I commend you to the gods who love and uphold you, and who do not +like to make their great gifts vain, but teach us that the best +life-insurance is a great task. I hold you to be one of those to +whom all is permitted, and who carry the laws in their hand. +Continue to be good to your old friends. 'T is no matter whether +they write to you or not. If not, they save your time. When +_Friedrich_ is once despatched to gods and men, there was once +some talk that you should come to America! You shall have an +ovation such, and on such sincerity, as none have had. + +Ever affectionately yours, + R.W. Emerson + +I do not know Mr. Wight, but he sends his open letter, which I +fear is already old, for me to write in: and I will not keep it, +lest it lose another steamer. + + + + +CLXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, London, 30 April, 1860 + +Dear Emerson,--It is a special favor of Heaven to me that I hear +of you again by this accident; and am made to answer a word _de +Profundis._ It is constantly among the fairest of the few hopes +that remain for me on the other side of this Stygian Abyss of a +_Friedrich_ (should I ever get through it alive) that I _shall +then_ begin writing to you again, who knows if not see you in the +body before quite taking wing! For I feel always, what I have +some times written, that there is (in a sense) but one completely +human voice to me in the world; and that you are it, and have +been,--thanks to you, whether you speak or not! Let me say also, +while I am at it, that the few words you sent me about those +first Two volumes are present with me in the far more frightful +darknesses of these last Two; and indeed are often almost my one +encouragement. That is a fact, and not exaggerated, though you +think it is. I read some criticisms of my wretched Book, and +hundreds of others I in the gross refused to read; they were in +praise, they were in blame; but not one of them looked into the +eyes of the object, and in genuine human fashion responded to its +human strivings, and recognized it,--completely right, though +with generous exaggeration! That was well done, I can tell you: +a human voice, far out in the waste deeps, among the inarticulate +sea-krakens and obscene monsters, loud-roaring, inexpressibly +ugly, dooming you as if to eternal solitude by way of wages,-- +"hath exceeding much refreshment in it," as my friend Oliver used +to say. + +Having not one spare moment at present, I will answer to _you_ +only the whole contents of that letter; you in your charity will +convey to Mr. Wight what portion belongs to him. Wight, if you +have a chance of him, is worth knowing; a genuine bit of metal, +too thin and ringing for my tastes (hammered, in fact, upon the +Yankee anvils), but recognizably of steel and with a keen fire- +edge. Pray signify to him that he has done a thing agreeable to +me, and that it will be pleasant if I find it will not hurt +_him._ Profit to me out of it, except to keep his own soul clear +and sound (to his own sense, as it always will be to mine), is +perfectly indifferent; and on the whole I thank him heartily for +showing me a chivalrous human brother, instead of the usual +vulturous, malodorous, and much avoidable phenomenon, in +Transatlantic Bibliopoly! This is accurately true; and so far +as his publisher and he can extract encouragement from this, in +the face of vested interests which I cannot judge of, it is +theirs without reserve.... + +Adieu, my friend; I have not written so much in the Letter way, +not, I think, since you last heard of me. In my despair it often +seems as if I should never write more; but be sunk here, and +perish miserably in the most undoable, least worthy, most +disgusting and heart breaking of all the labors I ever had. But +perhaps also not, not quite. In which case-- + +Yours ever truly at any rate, + T. Carlyle + +No time to re-read. I suppose you can decipher. + + + + +CLXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 29 January, 1861 + +Dear Emerson,--The sight of my hand-writing will, I know, be +welcome again. Though I literally do not write the smallest Note +once in a month, or converse with anything but Prussian +Nightmares of a hideous [nature], and with my Horse (who is human +in comparison), and with my poor Wife (who is altogether human, +and heroically cheerful to me, in her poor weak state),--I must +use the five minutes, which have fallen to me today, in +acknowledgment, _du_e by all laws terrestrial and celestial, of +the last Book* that has come from you. + +-------- +* "The Conduct of Life." +-------- + +I read it a great while ago, mostly in sheets, and again read it +in the finely printed form,--I can tell you, if you do not +already guess, with a satisfaction given me by the Books of no +other living mortal. I predicted to your English Bookseller a +great sale even, reckoning it the best of all your Books. What +the sale was or is I nowhere learned; but the basis of my +prophecy remains like the rocks, and will remain. Indeed, except +from my Brother John, I have heard no criticism that had much +rationality,--some of them incredibly irrational (if that matter +had not altogether become a barking of dogs among us);--but I +always believe there are in the mute state a great number of +thinking English souls, who can recognize a Thinker and a Sayer, +of perennially human type and welcome him as the rarest of +miracles, in "such a spread of knowledge" as there now is:--one +English soul of that kind there indubitably is; and I certify +hereby, notarially if you like, that such is emphatically his +view of the matter. You have grown older, more pungent, +piercing;--I never read from you before such lightning-gleams of +meaning as are to be found here. The finale of all, that of +"Illusions" falling on us like snow-showers, but again of "the +gods sitting steadfast on their thrones" all the while,--what a +_Fiat Lux_ is there, into the deeps of a philosophy, which the +vulgar has not, which hardly three men living have, yet dreamt +of! _Well done,_ I say; and so let that matter rest. + +I am still twelve months or so from the end of my Task; very +uncertain often whether I can, even at this snail's pace, hold +out so long. In my life I was never worn nearly so low, and seem +to get _weaker_ monthly. Courage! If I do get through, you +shall hear of me, again. + +Yours forever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 16 April, 1861 + +My Dear Carlyle,--...I have to thank you for the cordial note +which brought me joy, many weeks ago. It was noble and welcome +in all but its boding account of yourself and your task. But I +have had experience of your labors, and these deplorations I have +long since learned to distrust. We have settled it in America, +as I doubt not it is settled in England, that _Frederick_ is a +history which a beneficent Providence is not very likely to +interrupt. And may every kind and tender influence near you and +over you keep the best head in England from all harm. + +Affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXIX. Emerson to Carlyle* + +Concord, 8 December, 1862 + +My Dear Friend,--Long ago, as soon as swift steamers could bring +the new book across the sea, I received the third volume of +_Friedrich,_ with your autograph inscription, and read it with +joy. Not a word went to the beloved author, for I do not write +or think. I would wait perhaps for happier days, as our +President Lincoln will not even emancipate slaves, until on the +heels of a victory, or the semblance of such. But he waited in +vain for his triumph, nor dare I in my heavy months expect bright +days. The book was heartily grateful, and square to the author's +imperial scale. You have lighted the glooms, and engineered away +the pits, whereof you poetically pleased yourself with +complaining, in your sometime letter to me, clean out of it, +according to the high Italian rule, and have let sunshine and +pure air enfold the scene. First, I read it honestly through for +the history; then I pause and speculate on the Muse that +inspires, and the friend that reports it. 'T is sovereignly +written, above all literature, dictating to all mortals what they +shall accept as fated and final for their salvation. It is +Mankind's Bill of Rights and Duties, the royal proclamation of +Intellect ascending the throne, announcing its good pleasure, +that, hereafter, _as heretofore,_ and now once for all, the World +shall be governed by Common Sense and law of Morals, or shall go +to ruin. + +--------- +* Portions of this and of the following letter of Emerson have +been printed by Mr. Alexander Ireland in his "Ralph Waldo +Emerson: Recollections of his Visits to England," &c. London, +1882. +---------- + +But the manner of it!--the author sitting as Demiurgus, trotting +out his manikins, coaxing and bantering them, amused with their +good performance, patting them on the back, and rating the +naughty dolls when they misbehave; and communicating his mind +ever in measure, just as much as the young public can understand; +hinting the future, when it would be useful; recalling now and +then illustrative antecedents of the actor, impressing, the +reader that he is in possession of the entire history centrally +seen, that his investigation has been exhaustive, and that he +descends too on the petty plot of Prussia from higher and +cosmical surveys. Better I like the sound sense and the absolute +independence of the tone, which may put kings in fear. And, as +the reader shares, according to his intelligence, the haughty +_coup d'oeil_ of this genius, and shares it with delight, I +recommend to all governors, English, French, Austrian, and other, +to double their guards, and look carefully to the censorship of +the press. I find, as ever in your books, that one man has +deserved well of mankind for restoring the Scholar's profession +to its highest use and dignity.* I find also that you are very +wilful, and have made a covenant with your eyes that they shall +not see anything you do not wish they should. But I was heartily +glad to read somewhere that your book was nearly finished in the +manuscript, for I could wish you to sit and taste your fame, if +that were not contrary to law of Olympus. My joints ache to +think of your rugged labor. Now that you have conquered to +yourself such a huge kingdom among men, can you not give yourself +breath, and chat a little, an Emeritus in the eternal university, +and write a gossiping letter to an old American friend or so? +Alas, I own that I have no right to say this last,--I who +write never. + +-------- +* As long before as 1843 Emerson wrote in his Diary: "Carlyle in +his new book" (_Past and Present_), "as everywhere, is a +continuer of the great line of scholars in the world, of Horace, +Varro, Pliny, Erasmus, Scaliger, Milton, and well sustains their +office in ample credit and honor." +--------- + +Here we read no books. The war is our sole and doleful +instructor. All our bright young men go into it, to be misused +and sacrificed hitherto by incapable leaders. One lesson they +all learn,--to hate slavery, _teterrima causa._ But the issue +does not yet appear. We must get ourselves morally right. +Nobody can help us. 'T is of no account what England or France +may do. Unless backed by our profligate parties, their action +would be nugatory, and, if so backed, the worst. But even the +war is better than the degrading and descending politics that +preceded it for decades of years, and our legislation has made +great strides, and if we can stave off that fury of trade which +rushes to peace at the cost of replacing the South in the _status +ante bellum,_ we can, with something more of courage, leave the +problem to another score of years,--free labor to fight with the +Beast, and see if bales and barrels and baskets cannot find out +that they pass more commodiously and surely to their ports +through free hands, than through barbarians. + +I grieved that the good Clough, the generous, susceptible +scholar, should die. I read over his _Bothie_ again, full of the +wine of youth at Oxford. I delight in Matthew Arnold's fine +criticism in two little books. Give affectionate remembrances +from me to Jane Carlyle, whom ---'s happiness and accurate +reporting restored to me in brightest image. + +Always faithfully yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 8 March, 1864 + +Dear Emerson,--This will be delivered to you by the Hon. Lyulph +Stanley, an excellent, intelligent young gentleman whom I have +known ever since his infancy,--his father and mother being among +my very oldest friends in London; "Lord and Lady Stanley of +Alderley" (not of Knowesley, but a cadet branch of it), whom +perhaps you did not meet while here. + +My young Friend is coming to look with his own eyes at your huge +and hugely travailing Country;--and I think will agree with you, +better than he does with me, in regard to that latest phenomenon. +At all events, he regards "Emerson" as intelligent Englishmen all +do; and you will please me much by giving him your friendliest +reception and furtherance,--which I can certify that he deserves +for his own sake, not counting mine at all. + +Probably _he_ may deliver you the Vol. IV. of _Frederic;_ he +will tell you our news (part of which, what regards my poor Wife, +is very bad, though God be thanked not yet the worst);--and, in +some six months, he may bring me back some human tidings from +Concord, a place which always inhabits my memory,--though it is +so dumb latterly! + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 26 September, 1864 + +Dear Carlyle,--Your friend, young Stanley, brought me your letter +now too many days ago. It contained heavy news of your +household,--yet such as in these our autumnal days we must await +with what firmness we can. I hear with pain that your Wife, whom +I have only seen beaming goodness and intelligence, has suffered +and suffers so severely. I recall my first visit to your house, +when I pronounced you wise and fortunate in relations wherein +best men are often neither wise nor fortunate. I had already +heard rumors of her serious illness. Send me word, I pray you, +that there is better health and hope. For the rest, the Colonna +motto would fit your letter, "Though sad, I am strong." + +I had received in July, forwarded by Stanley, on his flight +through Boston, the fourth Volume of _Friedrich,_ and it was my +best reading in the summer, and for weeks my only reading: One +fact was paramount in all the good I drew from it, that +whomsoever many years had used and worn, they had not yet broken +any fibre of your force:--a pure joy to me, who abhor the inroads +which time makes on me and on my friends. To live too long is +the capital misfortune, and I sometimes think, if we shall not +parry it by better art of living, we shall learn to include in +our morals some bolder control of the facts. I read once, that +Jacobi declared that he had some thoughts which--if he should +entertain them--would put him to death: and perhaps we have +weapons in our intellectual armory that are to save us from +disgrace and impertinent relation to the world we live in. But +this book will excuse you from any unseemly haste to make up your +accounts, nay, holds you to fulfil your career with all amplitude +and calmness. I found joy and pride in it, and discerned a +golden chain of continuity not often seen in the works of men, +apprising me that one good head and great heart remained in +England,--immovable, superior to his own eccentricities and +perversities, nay, wearing these, I can well believe, as a jaunty +coat or red cockade to defy or mislead idlers, for the better +securing his own peace, and the very ends which the idlers fancy +he resists. England's lease of power is good during his days. + +I have in these last years lamented that you had not made the +visit to America, which in earlier years you projected or +favored. It would have made it impossible that your name should +be cited for one moment on the side of the enemies of mankind. +Ten days' residence in this country would have made you the organ +of the sanity of England and of Europe to us and to them, and +have shown you the necessities and aspirations which struggle up +in our Free States, which, as yet, have no organ to others, and +are ill and unsteadily articulated here. In our today's division +of Republican and Democrat, it is certain that the American +nationality lies in the Republican party (mixed and multiform +though that party be); and I hold it not less certain, that, +viewing all the nationalities of the world, the battle for +Humanity is, at this hour, in America. A few days here would +show you the disgusting composition of the Party which within the +Union resists the national action. Take from it the wild Irish +element, imported in the last twenty-five year's into this +country, and led by Romish Priests, who sympathize, of course, +with despotism, and you would bereave it of all its numerical +strength. A man intelligent and virtuous is not to be found on +that side. Ah! how gladly I would enlist you, with your +thunderbolt, on our part! How gladly enlist the wise, +thoughtful, efficient pens and voices of England! We want +England and Europe to hold our people stanch to their best +tendency. Are English of this day incapable of a great +sentiment? Can they not leave caviling at petty failures, and +bad manners, and at the dunce part (always the largest part in +human affairs), and leap to the suggestions and finger-pointings +of the gods, which, above the understanding, feed the hopes and +guide the wills of men? This war has been conducted over the +heads of all the actors in it; and the foolish terrors, "What +shall we do with the negro?" "The entire black population is +coming North to be fed," &c., have strangely ended in the fact +that the black refuses to leave his climate; gets his living and +the living of his employers there, as he has always done; is the +natural ally and soldier of the Republic, in that climate; now +takes the place of two hundred thousand white soldiers; and will +be, as the conquest of the country proceeds, its garrison, till +peace, without slavery, returns. Slaveholders in London have +filled English ears with their wishes and perhaps beliefs; and +our people, generals, and politicians have carried the like, at +first, to the war, until corrected by irresistible experience. I +shall always respect War hereafter. The cost of life, the dreary +havoc of comfort and time, are overpaid by the vistas it opens of +Eternal Life, Eternal Law, reconstructing and uplifting Society, +--breaks up the old horizon, and we see through the rifts a wider. +The dismal Malthus, the dismal DeBow, have had their night. + +Our Census of 1860, and the War, are poems, which will, in the +next age, inspire a genius like your own. I hate to write you a +newspaper, but, in these times, 't is wonderful what sublime +lessons I have once and again read on the Bulletin-boards in the +streets. Everybody has been wrong in his guess, except good +women, who never despair of an Ideal right. + +I thank you for sending to me so gracious a gentleman as Mr. +Stanley, who interested us in every manner, by his elegance, his +accurate information of that we wished to know, and his +surprising acquaintance with the camp and military politics on +our frontier. I regretted that I could see him so little. He +has used his time to the best purpose, and I should gladly have +learned all his adventures from so competent a witness. Forgive +this long writing, and keep the old kindness which I prize above +words. My kindest salutations to the dear invalid! + + --R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Cummertrees, Annan, Scotland, 14 June, 1865 + +Dear Emerson,--Though my hand is shaking (as you sadly notice) I +determine to write you a little Note today. What a severance +there has been these many sad years past!--In the first days of +February I ended my weary Book; a totally worn-out man, got to +shore again after far the ugliest sea he had ever swam in. In +April or the end of March, when the book was published, I duly +handed out a Copy for Concord and you; it was to be sent by +mail; but, as my Publisher (a _new_ Chapman, very unlike the +_old_) discloses to me lately an incredible negligence on such +points, it is quite possible the dog may _not,_ for a long while, +have put it in the Post-Office (though he faithfully charged me +the postage of it, and was paid), and that the poor waif may +never yet have reached you! Patience: it will come soon +enough,--there are two thick volumes, and they will stand you a +great deal of reading; stiff rather than "light." + +Since February last, I have been sauntering about in Devonshire, +in Chelsea, hither, thither; idle as a dry bone, in fact, a +creature sinking into deeper and deeper _collapse,_ after twelve +years of such mulish pulling and pushing; creature now good for +nothing seemingly, and much indifferent to being so in +permanence, if that be the arrangement come upon by the Powers +that made us. Some three or four weeks ago, I came rolling down +hither, into this old nook of my Birthland, to see poor old +Annandale again with eyes, and the poor remnants of kindred and +loved ones still left me there; I was not at first very lucky +(lost sleep, &c.); but am now doing better, pretty much got +adjusted to my new element, new to me since about six years +past,--the longest absence I ever had from it before. My Work +was getting desperate at that time; and I silently said to +myself, "We won't return till _it_ is done, or _you_ are done, +my man!" + +This is my eldest living sister's house; one of the most rustic +Farmhouses in the world, but abounding in all that is needful to +me, especially in the truest, _silently_-active affection, the +humble generosity of which is itself medicine and balm. The +place is airy, on dry waving knolls cheerfully (with such _water_ +as I never drank elsewhere, except at Malvern) all round me are +the Mountains, Cheviot and Galloway (three to fifteen miles off), +Cumberland and Yorkshire (say forty and fifty, with the Solway +brine and sands intervening). I live in total solitude, +sauntering moodily in thin checkered woods, galloping about, once +daily, by old lanes and roads, oftenest latterly on the wide +expanses of Solway shore (when the tide is _out!_) where I see +bright busy Cottages far off, houses over even in Cumberland, and +the beautifulest amphitheatre of eternal Hills,--but meet no +living creature; and have endless thoughts as loving and as sad +and sombre as I like. My youngest Brother (whom on the whole I +like best, a rustic man, the express image of my Father in his +ways of living and thinking) is within ten miles of me; Brother +John "the Doctor" has come down to Dumfries to a sister (twelve +miles off), and runs over to me by rail now and then in few +minutes. I have Books; but can hardly be troubled with them. +Pitiful temporary babble and balderdash, in comparison to what +the Silences can say to one. Enough of all that: you perceive +me sufficiently at this point of my Pilgrimage, as withdrawn to +_Hades_ for the time being; intending a month's walk there, till +the muddy semi-solutions settle into sediment according to what +laws they have, and there be perhaps a partial restoration of +clearness. I have to go deeper into Scotland by and by, perhaps +to try _sailing,_ which generally agrees with me; but till the +end of September I hope there will be no London farther. My poor +Wife, who is again poorly since I left (and has had frightful +sufferings, last year especially) will probably join me in this +region before I leave it. And see here, This is authentically +the way we figure in the eye of the Sun; and something like what +your spectacles, could they reach across the Ocean into these +nooks, would teach you of us. There are three Photographs which +I reckon fairly _like;_ _these_ are properly what I had to send +you today,--little thinking that so much surplusage would +accumulate about them; to which I now at once put an end. Your +friend Conway,* who is a boundless admirer of yours, used to come +our way regularly now and then; and we always liked him well. A +man of most gentlemanly, ingenious ways; turn of thought always +loyal and manly, though tending to be rather _winged_ than +solidly ambulatory. He talked of coming to Scotland too; but it +seems uncertain whether we shall meet. He is clearly rather a +favorite among the London people,--and tries to explain America +to them; I know not if with any success. As for me, I have +entirely lost count and reckoning of your enormous element, and +its enormous affairs and procedures for some time past; and can +only wish (which no man more heartily does) that all may issue in +as blessed a way as you hope. Fat--(if you know and his fat +commonplace at all) amused me much by a thing he had heard of +yours in some lecture a year or two ago. "The American Eagle is +a mighty bird; but what is he to the American Peacock." At +which all the audience had exploded into laughter. Very good. +Adieu, old Friend. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + +--------- +* Mr. Moncure D. Conway. +--------- + + + + +CLXXIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 7 January, 1866 + +Dear Carlyle,--Is it too late to send a letter to your door to +claim an old right to enter, and to scatter all your convictions +that I had passed under the earth? You had not to learn what a +sluggish pen mine is. Of course, the sluggishness grows on me, +and even such a trumpet at my gate as a letter from you +heralding-in noble books, whilst it gives me joy, cannot heal the +paralysis. Yet your letter deeply interested me, with the +account of your rest so well earned. You had fought your great +battle, and might roll in the grass, or ride your pony, or shout +to the Cumberland or Scotland echoes, with largest leave of men +and gods. My lethargies have not dulled my delight in good +books. I read these in the bright days of our new peace, which +added a lustre to every genial work. Now first we had a right to +read, for the very bookworms were driven out of doors whilst the +war lasted. I found in the book no trace of age, which your +letter so impressively claimed. In the book, the hand does not +shake, the mind is ubiquitous. The treatment is so spontaneous, +self-respecting, defiant,--liberties with your hero as if he were +your client, or your son, and you were proud of him, and yet can +check and chide him, and even put him in the corner when he is +not a good boy, freedoms with kings, and reputations, and +nations, yes, and with principles too,--that each reader, I +suppose, feels complimented by the confidences with which he is +honored by this free-tongued, masterful Hermes.--Who knows what +the [Greek] will say next? This humor of telling the story in a +gale,--bantering, scoffing, at the hero, at the enemy, at the +learned reporters,--is a perpetual flattery to the admiring +student,--the author abusing the whole world as mad dunces,--all +but you and I, reader! Ellery Channing borrowed my Volumes V. +and VI., worked slowly through them,--midway came to me for +Volumes I., II., III., IV., which he had long already read, and +at last returned all with this word, "If you write to Mr. +Carlyle, you may say to him, that I _have_ read these books, +and they have made it impossible for me to read any other books +but his." + +'T is a good proof of their penetrative force, the influence on +the new Stirling, who writes "The Secret of Hegel." He is quite +as much a student of Carlyle to learn treatment, as of Hegel for +his matter, and plays the same game on his essence-dividing +German, which he has learned of you on _Friedrich._ I have +read a good deal in this book of Stirling's, and have not done +with it. + +One or two errata I noticed in the last volumes of _Friedrich,_ +though the books are now lent, and I cannot indicate the pages. +Fort Pulaski, which is near Savannah, is set down as near +Charleston. Charleston, South Carolina, your printer has twice +called Charlestown, which is the name of the town in +Massachusetts in which Bunker Hill stands.--Bancroft told me +that the letters of Montcalm are spurious. We always write and +say Ticonderoga. + +I am sorry that Jonathan looks so unamiable seen from your +island. Yet I have too much respect for the writing profession +to complain of it. It is a necessity of rhetoric that there +should be shades, and, I suppose, geography and government always +determine, even for the greatest wits, where they shall lay their +shadows. But I have always 'the belief that a trip across the +sea would have abated your despair of us. The world is laid out +here in large lots, and the swing of natural laws is shared by +the population, as it is not--or not as much--in your feudal +Europe. My countrymen do not content me, but they are +susceptible of inspirations. In the war it was humanity that +showed itself to advantage,--the leaders were prompted and +corrected by the intuitions of the people, they still demanding +the more generous and decisive measure, and giving their sons and +their estates as we had no example before. In this heat, they +had sharper perceptions of policy, of the ways and means and the +life of nations, and on every side we read or heard fate-words, +in private letters, in railway cars, or in the journals. We were +proud of the people and believed they would not go down from this +height. But Peace came, and every one ran back into his shop +again, and can hardly be won to patriotism more, even to the +point of chasing away the thieves that are stealing not only +the public gold, but the newly won rights of the slave, and +the new muzzles we had contrived to keep the planter from +sucking his blood. + +Very welcome to me were the photographs,--your own, and Jane +Carlyle's. Hers, now seen here for the first time, was closely +scanned, and confirmed the better accounts that had come of her +improved health. Your earlier tidings of her had not been +encouraging. I recognized still erect the wise, friendly +presence first seen at Craigenputtock. Of your own--the hatted +head is good, but more can be read in the head leaning on the +hand, and the one in a cloak. + +At the end of much writing, I have little to tell you of myself. +I am a bad subject for autobiography. As I adjourn letters, so I +adjourn my best tasks.... My wife joins me in very kind regards +to Mrs. Carlyle. Use your old magnanimity to me, and punish my +stony ingratitudes by new letters from time to time. + +Ever affectionately and gratefully yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 16 May, 1866 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I have just been shown a private letter from +Moncure Conway to one of his friends here, giving some tidings of +your sad return to an empty home. We had the first news last +week. And so it is. The stroke long threatened has fallen at +last, in the mildest form to its victim, and relieved to you by +long and repeated reprieves. I must think her fortunate also in +this gentle departure, as she had been in her serene and honored +career. We would not for ourselves count covetously the +descending steps after we have passed the top of the mount, or +grudge to spare some of the days of decay. And you will have the +peace of knowing her safe, and no longer a victim. I have found +myself recalling an old verse which one utters to the parting +soul,-- + + "For thou hast passed all chance of human life, + And not again to thee shall beauty die." + + It is thirty-three years in July, I believe, since I first saw +her, and her conversation and faultless manners gave assurance of +a good and happy future. As I have not witnessed any decline, I +can hardly believe in any, and still recall vividly the youthful +wife, and her blithe account of her letters and homages from +Goethe, and the details she gave of her intended visit to Weimar, +and its disappointment. Her goodness to me and to my friends was +ever perfect, and all Americans have agreed in her praise. +Elizabeth Hoar remembers her with entire sympathy and regard. + +I could heartily wish to see you for an hour in these lonely +days. Your friends, I know, will approach you as tenderly as +friends can; and I can believe that labor--all whose precious +secrets you know--will prove a consoler,--though it cannot quite +avail, for she was the rest that rewarded labor. It is good that +you are strong, and built for endurance. Nor will you shun to +consult the awful oracles which in these hours of tenderness are +sometimes vouchsafed. If to any, to you. + +I rejoice that she stayed to enjoy the knowledge of your good day +at Edinburgh, which is a leaf we would not spare from your book +of life. It was a right manly speech to be so made, and is a +voucher of unbroken strength,--and the surroundings, as I learn, +were all the happiest,--with no hint of change. + +I pray you bear in mind your own counsels. Long years you must +still achieve, and, I hope, neither grief nor weariness will let +you "join the dim choir of the bards that have been," until you +have written the book I wish and wait for,--the sincerest +confessions of your best hours. + +My wife prays to be remembered to you with sympathy and affection. + +Ever yours faithfully, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXV. Carlyle to Emerson + +Mentone, France, Alpes Maritimes +27 January, 1867 + +My Dear Emerson,--It is along time since I last wrote to you; +and a long distance in space and in fortune,--from the shores of +the Solway in summer 1865, to this niche of the Alps and +Mediterranean today, after what has befallen me in the interim. +A longer interval, I think, and surely by far a sadder, than ever +occurred between us before, since we first met in the Scotch +moors, some five and thirty years ago. You have written me +various Notes, too, and Letters, all good and cheering to me,-- +almost the only truly human speech I have heard from anybody +living;--and still my stony silence could not be broken; not +till now, though often looking forward to it, could I resolve on +such a thing. You will think me far gone, and much bankrupt in +hope and heart;--and indeed I am; as good as without hope and +without fear; a gloomily serious, silent, and sad old man; +gazing into the final chasm of things, in mute dialogue with +"Death, Judgment, and Eternity" (dialogue _mute_ on _both_ +sides!), not caring to discourse with poor articulate-speaking +fellow creatures on their sorts of topics. It is right of me; +and yet also it is not right. I often feel that I had better be +dead than thus indifferent, contemptuous, disgusted with the +world and its roaring nonsense, which I have no thought farther +of lifting a finger to help, and only try to keep out of the way +of, and shut my door against. But the truth is, I was nearly +killed by that hideous Book on Friedrich,--twelve years in +continuous wrestle with the nightmares and the subterranean +hydras;--nearly _killed,_ and had often thought I should be +altogether, and must die leaving the monster not so much as +finished! This is one truth, not so evident to any friend or +onlooker as it is to myself: and then there is another, known to +myself alone, as it were; and of which I am best not to speak to +others, or to speak to them no farther. By the calamity of April +last, I lost my little all in this world; and have no soul left +who can make any corner of this world into a _home_ for me any +more. Bright, heroic, tender, true and noble was that lost +treasure of my heart, who faithfully accompanied me in all the +rocky ways and climbings; and I am forever poor without her. +She was snatched from me in a moment,--as by a death from the +gods. Very beautiful her death was; radiantly beautiful (to +those who understand it) had all her life been _quid plura?_ I +should be among the dullest and stupidest, if I were not among +the saddest of all men. But not a word more on all this. + +All summer last, my one solacement in the form of work was +writing, and sorting of old documents and recollections; +summoning out again into clearness old scenes that had now closed +on me without return. Sad, and in a sense sacred; it was like a +kind of _worship;_ the only _devout_ time I had had for a great +while past. These things I have half or wholly the intention to +burn out of the way before I myself die:--but such continues +still mainly my employment,--so many hours every forenoon; what +I call the "work" of my day;--to me, if to no other, it is +useful; to reduce matters to writing means that you shall know +them, see them in their origins and sequences, in their essential +lineaments, considerably better than you ever did before. To set +about writing my own _Life_ would be no less than horrible to me; +and shall of a certainty never be done. The common impious +vulgar of this earth, what has it to do with my life or me? Let +dignified oblivion, silence, and the vacant azure of Eternity +swallow _me;_ for my share of it, that, verily, is the +handsomest, or one handsome way, of settling my poor account with +the _canaille_ of mankind extant and to come. "Immortal glory," +is not that a beautiful thing, in the Shakespeare Clubs and +Literary Gazettes of our improved Epoch?--I did not leave London, +except for fourteen days in August, to a fine and high old Lady- +friend's in Kent; where, riding about the woods and by the sea- +beaches and chalk cliffs, in utter silence, I felt sadder than +ever, though a little less _miserably_ so, than in the intrusive +babblements of London, which I could not quite lock out of doors. +We read, at first, Tennyson's _Idyls,_ with profound recognition +of the finely elaborated execution, and also of the inward +perfection of _vacancy,_--and, to say truth, with considerable +impatience at being treated so very like infants, though the +lollipops were so superlative. We gladly changed for one +Emerson's _English Traits;_ and read that, with increasing and +ever increasing satisfaction every evening; blessing Heaven that +there were still Books for grown-up people too! That truly is a +Book all full of thoughts like winged arrows (thanks to the +Bowyer from us both):--my Lady-friend's name is Miss Davenport +Bromley; it was at Wooton, in her Grandfather's House, in +Staffordshire, that Rousseau took shelter in 1760; and one +hundred and six years later she was reading Emerson to me with a +recognition that would have pleased the man, had he seen it. + +About that same time my health and humors being evidently so, the +Dowager Lady Ashburton (not the high Lady you saw, but a +Successor of Mackenzie-Highland type), who wanders mostly about +the Continent since her widowhood, for the sake of a child's +health, began pressing and inviting me to spend the blade months +of Winter here in her Villa with her;--all friends warmly +seconding and urging; by one of whom I was at last snatched off, +as if by the hair of the head, (in spite of my violent No, no!) +on the eve of Christmas last, and have been here ever since,-- +really with improved omens. The place is beautiful as a very +picture, the climate superlative (today a sun and sky like very +June); the _hospitality_ of usage beyond example. It is likely +I shall be here another six weeks, or longer. If you please to +write me, the address is on the margin; and I will answer. Adieu. + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXVI. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 18 November, 1869 + +Dear Emerson,--It is near three years since I last wrote to you; +from Mentone, under the Ligurian Olive and Orange trees, and +their sombre foreign shadows, and still more sombre suggestings +and promptings; the saddest, probably, of all living men. That +you made no answer I know right well means only, "Alas, what can +I say to him of consolatory that he does not himself know!" Far +from a fault, or perhaps even a mistake on your part;--nor have I +felt it otherwise. Sure enough, among the lights that have gone +out for me, and are still going, one after one, under the +inexorable Decree, in this now dusky and lonely world, I count +with frequent regret that our Correspondence (not by absolute +hest of Fate) should have fallen extinct, or into such abeyance: +but I interpret it as you see; and my love and brotherhood to +you remain alive, and will while I myself do. Enough of this. +By lucky chance, as you perceive, you are again to get one +written Letter from me, and I a reply from you, before the final +Silence come. The case is this. + +For many years back, a thought, which I used to check again as +fond and silly, has been occasionally present to me,--Of +testifying my gratitude to New England (New England, acting +mainly through one of her Sons called Waldo Emerson), _by +bequeathing to it my poor Falstaf Regiment, latterly two Falstaf +Regiments of Books,_ those I purchased and used in writing +_Cromwell,_ and ditto those on _Friedrich the Great._ "This +could be done," I often said to myself; "this _could_ perhaps; +and this would be a real satisfaction to me. But who then +would march through Coventry with such a set!" The extreme +insignificance of the Gift, this and nothing else, always gave +me pause. + +Last Summer, I was lucky enough to meet with your friend C.E. +Norton, and renew many old Massachusetts recollections, in free +talk with [him]....; to him I spoke of the affair; candidly +describing it, especially the above questionable feature of it, +so far as I could; and his answer, then, and more deliberately +afterwards, was so hopeful, hearty, and decisive, that--in effect +it has decided me; and I am this day writing to him that such is +the poor fact, and that I need farther instructions on it so soon +as you two have taken counsel together. + +To say more about the infinitesimally small value of the Books +would be superfluous: nay, in truth, many or most of them are +not without intrinsic value, one or two are even excellent as +Books; and all of them, it may perhaps be said, have a kind of +_symbolic_ or _biographic_ value; and testify (a thing not +useless) _on what slender commissariat stores_ considerable +campaigns, twelve years long or so, may be carried on in this +world. Perhaps you already knew of me, what the _Cromwell_ and +_Friedrich_ collection might itself intimate, that much _buying_ +of Books was never a habit of mine,--far the reverse, even to +this day! + +Well, my Friend, you will have a meeting with Norton so soon as +handy; and let me know what is next to be done. And that, in +your official capacity, is all I have to say to you at present. + +Unofficially there were much,--much that is mournful, but perhaps +also something that is good and blessed, and though the saddest, +also the highest, the lovingest and best; as beseems Time's +sunset, now coming nigh. At present I will say only that, in +bodily health, I am not to be called Ill, for a man who will be +seventy-four next month; nor, on the spiritual side, has +anything been laid upon me that is quite beyond my strength. +More miserable I have often been; though as solitary, soft of +heart, and sad, of course never. + +Publisher Chapman, when I question him whether you for certain +_get_ your Monthly Volume of what they call "The Library +Edition," assures me that "it is beyond doubt":--I confess I +should still like to be _better_ assured. If all is _right,_ you +should, by the time this Letter arrives, be receiving or have +received your thirteenth Volume, last of the _Miscellanies._ +Adieu, my Friend. + +Ever truly yours, + T. Carlyle + + + +CLXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 4 January, 1870 + +Dear Emerson,--A month ago or more I wrote, by the same post, to +you and to Norton about those Books for Harvard College; and in +late days have been expecting your joint answer. From Norton +yesternight I receive what is here copied for your perusal; it +has come round by Florence as you see, and given me real pleasure +and instruction. From you, who are possibly also away from home, +I have yet nothing; but expect now soon to have a few words. +There did arrive, one evening lately, your two pretty _volumes_ +of _Collected Works,_ a pleasant salutation from you--which set +me upon reading again what I thought I knew well before:--but the +Letter is still to come. + +Norton's hints are such a complete instruction to me that I see +my way straight through the business, and might, by Note of +"Bequest" and memorandum for the Barings, finish it in half an +hour: nevertheless I will wait for your Letter, and punctually +do nothing till your directions too are before me. Pray write, +therefore; all is lying ready here. Since you heard last, I +have got two Catalogues made out, approximately correct; one is +to lie here till the Bequest be executed; the other I thought of +sending to you against the day? This is my own invention in +regard to the affair since I wrote last. Approve of it, and you +shall have your copy by Book-post at once. "_Approximately_ +correct"; absolutely I cannot get it to be. But I need not +doubt the Pious Purpose will be piously and even sacredly +fulfilled;--and your Catalogue will be a kind of evidence that it +is. Adieu, dear Emerson, till your Letter come. + +Yours ever, + Thomas Carlyle + + + + +CLXXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 23 January, 1870* + +My Dear Carlyle,--'T is a sad apology that I have to offer for +delays which no apology can retrieve. I received your first +letter with pure joy, but in the midst of extreme inefficiency. +I had suddenly yielded to a proposition of Fields & Co. to +manufacture a book for a given day. The book was planned, and +going on passably, when it was found better to divide the matter, +and separate, and postpone the purely literary portion (criticism +chiefly), and therefore to modify and swell the elected part. +The attempt proved more difficult than I had believed, for I only +write by spasms, and these ever more rare,--and daemons that have +no ears. Meantime the publication day was announced, and the +printer at the door. Then came your letter in the shortening +days. When I drudged to keep my word, _invita Minerva._ + +--------- +* This letter is printed from an imperfect rough draft. +--------- + +I could not write in my book, and I could not write a letter. +Tomorrow and many morrows made things worse, for we have +indifferent health in the house, and, as it chanced, unusual +strain of affairs,--which always come when they should not. For +one thing--I have just sold a house which I once built opposite +my own. But I will leave the bad month, which I hope will not +match itself in my lifetime. Only 't is pathetic and remorseful +to me that any purpose of yours, especially, a purpose so +inspired, should find me imbecile. + +Heartily I delight in your proposed disposition of the books. It +has every charm of surprise, and nobleness, and large affection. +The act will deeply gratify a multitude of good men, who will see +in it your real sympathy with the welfare of the country. I hate +that there should be a moment of delay in the completing of your +provisions,--and that I of all men should be the cause! Norton's +letter is perfect on his part, and needs no addition, I believe, +from me. You had not in your first letter named _Cambridge,_ and +I had been meditating that he would probably have divided your +attention between Harvard and the Boston Public Library,--now the +richest in the country, at first founded by the gifts of Joshua +Bates (of London), and since enriched by the city and private +donors, Theodore Parker among them. But after conversation with +two or three friends, I had decided that Harvard College was the +right beneficiary, as being the mother real or adoptive of a +great number of your lovers and readers in America, and because a +College is a seat of sentiment and cosmical relations. The +Library is outgrown by other libraries in the Country, counts +only 119,000 bound volumes in 1868; the several departments of +Divinity, Law, Medicine, and Natural Science in the University +having special libraries, that together add some 40,000 more. +The College is newly active (with its new President Eliot, a +cousin of Norton's) and expansive in all directions. And the +Library will be relieved through subscriptions now being +collected among the Alumni with the special purpose of securing +to it an adequate fund for annual increase. + +I shall then write to Norton at once that I concur with him in +the destination of the books to Harvard College, and approve +entirely his advices in regard to details. And so soon as you +send me the Catalogue I shall, if you permit, communicate your +design to President Eliot and the Corporation. + +One thing I shall add to the Catalogue now or later (perhaps only +by bequest), your own prized gift to me, in 1848, of Wood's +_Athenae Oxonienses,_ which I have lately had rebound, and in +which every pen and pencil mark of yours is notable. + +The stately books of the New Edition have duly come from the +unforgetting friend. I have _Sartor, Schiller, French +Revolution,_ 3 vols., _Miscellanies,_ Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,--ten +volumes in all, excellently printed and dressed, and full of +memories and electricity. + +I have much to say, but of things not opportune at this moment, +and in spite of my long contumacy dare believe that I shall +quickly write again my proper letter to my friend, whose every +word I watchfully read and remember. + + + + +CLXXIX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Melchet Court, Romsey, 14 February, 1870 + +Dear Emerson,--Three days ago I at last received your Letter; +with very great pleasure and thankfulness, as you may suppose. +Indeed, it is quite strangely interesting to see face to face my +old Emerson again, not a feature of him changed, whom I have +known all the best part of my life. + +I am very glad, withal, to find that you agree completely with +Norton and myself in regard to that small Harvard matter. + +This is not Chelsea, as you perceive, this is a hospitable +mansion in Hampshire; but I expect to be in Chelsea within about +a week; once there, I shall immediately despatch to you one of +the three Catalogues I have, with a more deliberate letter than I +at present have the means of writing or dictating. + +Yours ever truly, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXX. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 24 February, 1870 + +Dear Emerson,--At length I have got home from those sumptuous +tumults ("Melchet Court" is the Dowager Lady Ashburton's House, +whose late Husband, an estimable friend of mine, and _half +American,_ you may remember here); and I devote to ending of our +small Harvard Business, small enough, but true and kindly,--the +first quiet hour I have. + +Your Copy of the Catalogue, which accompanies by Book-Post of +today, is the correctest I could manage to get done; all the +Books mentioned in it I believe to be now here (and indeed, +except five or six _tiny_ articles, have _seen_ them all, in one +or other of the three rooms where my Books now stand, and where I +believe the insignificant trifle of "tinies" to be): all these I +can expect will be punctually attended to when the time comes, +and proceeded with according to Norton's scheme and yours;--and +if any more "tinies," which I could not even remember, should +turn up (which I hardly think there will), these also will +_class_ themselves (as _Cromwelliana_ or _Fredericana_), and be +faith fully sent on with the others. For benefit of my +_Survivors_ and _Representatives_ here, I retain an exact +_Copy_ of the Catalogue now put into your keeping; so that +everything may fall out square between them and you when the +Time shall arrive. + +I mean to conform in every particular to the plan sketched out by +Norton and you,--unless, in your next Letter, you have something +other or farther to advise:--and so soon as I hear from you that +Harvard accepts my poor widow's mite of a _Bequest,_ I will +proceed to put it down in due form, and so finish this small +matter, which for long years has hovered in my thoughts as a +thing I should like to do. And so enough for this time. + +I meant to write a longish Letter, touching on many other +points,--though you see I am reduced to _pencil,_ and "write" +with such difficulty (never yet could learn to "dictate," though +my little Niece here is promptitude itself, and is so swift and +legible,--useful here as a cheerful rushlight in this now sombre +element, sombre, sad, but also beautiful and tenderly solemn more +and more, in which she bears me company, good little "Mary"!). +But, in bar of all such purposes, Publisher Chapman has come in, +with Cromwell Engravings and their hindrances, with money +accounts, &c., &c.; and has not even left me a moment of time, +were nothing else needed! + +Vol. XIV. (_Cromwell,_ I.) ought to be at Concord about as soon +as this. In our Newspapers I notice your Book announced, "half +of the Essays new,"--which I hope to get _quam primum,_ and +illuminate some evenings with,--_so_ as nothing else can, in my +present common mood. + +Adieu, dear old Friend. I am and remain yours always, + + --T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXXI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 21 March, 1870 + +My Dear Carlyle,--On receiving your letter and catalogue I wrote +out a little history of the benefaction and carried it last +Tuesday to President Eliot at Cambridge, who was heartily +gratified, and saw everything rightly, and expressed an anxiety +(most becoming in my eyes after my odious shortcomings) that +there should be no moment of delay on our part. "The Corporation +would not meet again for a fortnight:--but he would not wait,-- +would call a special meeting this week to make the communication +to them." He did so: the meeting was held on Saturday and I +have received this (Monday) morning from him enclosed letter +and record. + +It is very amiable and noble in you to have kept this surprise +for us in your older days. Did you mean to show us that you +could not be old, but immortally young? and having kept us all +murmuring at your satires and sharp homilies, will now melt us +with this manly and heart-warming embrace? Nobody could predict +and none could better it. And you shall even go your own gait +henceforward with a blessing from us all, and a trust exceptional +and unique. I do not longer hesitate to talk to such good men as +I see of this gift, and it has in every ear a gladdening effect. +People like to see character in a gift, and from rare character +the gift is more precious. I wish it may be twice blest in +continuing to give you the comfort it will give us. + +I think I must mend myself by reclaiming my old right to send you +letters. I doubt not I shall have much to tell you, could I +overcome the hesitation to attempt a reasonable letter when one +is driven to write so many sheets of mere routine as sixty-six +(nearly sixty-seven) years enforce. I shall have to prate of my +daughters;--Edith Forbes, with her two children at Milton; Ellen +Emerson at home, herself a godsend to this house day by day; and +my son Edward studying medicine in Boston,--whom I have ever +meant and still mean to send that he may see your face when that +professional curriculum winds up. + +I manage to read a few books and look into more. Herman Grimm +sent me lately a good one, Goethe's _Unterhaltungen_ with +Muller,--which set me on Varnhagen and others. My wife sends old +regards, and her joy in this occasion. + +Yours ever, + R.W. Emerson + +P.S. Mr. Eliot took my rough counting of Volumes as correct. +When he sends me back the catalogue, I will make it exact.--I +sent you last week a little book by book-post. + + + + +CLXXXII. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 24 March, 1870 + +My Dear Emerson,--The day before yesterday, I heard incidentally +of an unfortunate Mail Steamer, bound for America, which had lost +its screw or some essential part of it; and so had, instead of +carrying its Letters forward to America, been drifting about like +a helpless log on the shores of Ireland till some three days ago, +when its Letters and Passengers were taken out, and actually +forwarded, thither. By industrious calculation, it appears +probable to us here that my Letter to you may have been tumbling +about in that helpless Steamer, instead of getting to Concord; +where, if so, said Letter cannot now arrive till the lingering of +it have created some astonishment there. + +I hastily write this, however, to say that a Letter was duly +forwarded a few days after yours [of January 23] arrived,-- +enclosing the _Harvard Catalogue,_ with all necessary _et +ceteras;_ indorsing all your proposals; and signifying that the +matter should be authentically completed the instant I should +hear from you again. I may add now that the thing is essentially +completed,--all signed and put on paper, or all but a word +or two, which, for form's sake, waits the actual arrival of +your Letter. + +I have never yet received your Book;* and, if it linger only a +few days more, mean to provide myself with a copy such as the +Sampson and Low people have on sale everywhere. + +I had from Norton, the other day, a very kind and friendly Letter. + +This is all of essential that I had to say. I write in utmost +haste. But am always, dear Emerson, + +Yours sincerely, + T. Carlyle + +-------- +* "Society and Solitude." +-------- + + + + +CLXXXIII. Carlyle to Emerson + +Chelsea, 6 April, 1870 + +Dear Emerson,--The day before yesterday your welcome Letter came +to hand, with the welcome news in it; yesterday I put into my +poor Document here the few words still needed; locked everything +into its still repository (your Letter, President Eliot's, +Norton's, &c., &c.); and walked out into the sunshine, piously +thankful that a poor little whim, which had long lain fondly in +my heart, had realized itself with an emphasis I could never +hope, and was become (thanks to generous enthusiasm on New +England's part) a beautiful little fact, lying done there, so far +as I had to do with it. Truly your account of matters threw a +glow of _life_ into my thoughts which is very rare there now; +altogether a gratifying little Transaction to me,--and I must add +a surprising, for the enthusiasm of good-will is evidently great, +and the occasion is almost infinitesimally small! Well, well; +it is all finished off and completed,--(you can tell Mr. Eliot, +with many thanks from me, that I did introduce the proper style, +"President and Fellows," &c., and have forgotten nothing of what +he said, or of what he _did_);--and so we will say only, _Faustum +sit,_ as our last word on the subject;--and to me it will be, for +some days yet, under these vernal skies, something that is itself +connected with THE SPRING in a still higher sense; a little +white and red-lipped bit of _Daisy_ pure and poor, scattered into +TIME's Seedfield, and struggling above ground there, uttering +_its_ bit of prophecy withal, among the ox-hoofs and big jungles +that are everywhere about and not prophetic of much!-- + +One thing only I regret, that you _have_ spoken of the affair! +For God's sake don't; and those kindly people to whom you have,- +-swear them to silence for love of me! The poor little +_Daisy_kin will get into the Newspapers, and become the nastiest +of Cabbages:--silence, silence, I beg of you to the utmost +stretch of your power! Or is the case already irremediable? I +will hope not. Talk about such things, especially Penny Editor's +talk, is like vile coal-smoke filling your poor little world; +silence alone is azure, and has a _sky_ to it.--But, enough now. + +The "little Book" never came; and, I doubt, never will: it is a +fate that seems to await three fourths of the Books that attempt +to reach me by the American Post; owing to some _informality in +wrapping_ (I have heard);--it never gave me any notable _regret_ +till now. However, I had already bought myself an English copy, +rather gaudy little volume (probably intended for the _railways,_ +as if _it_ were a Book to be read there), but perfectly printed, +ready to be read anywhere by the open eye and earnest mind;-- +which I read here, accordingly, with great attention, clear +assent for most part, and admiring recognition. It seems to me +you are all your old self here, and something _more._ A calm +insight, piercing to the very centre; a beautiful sympathy, a +beautiful _epic_ humor; a soul peaceably irrefragable in this +loud-jangling world, of which it sees the ugliness, but _notices_ +only the huge new _opulences_ (still so anarchic); knows the +electric telegraph, with all its vulgar botherations and +impertinences, accurately for what it is, and ditto ditto the +oldest eternal Theologies of men. All this belongs to the +Highest Class of thought (you may depend upon it); and again +seemed to me as, in several respects, the one perfectly Human +Voice I had heard among my fellow-creatures for a long time. And +then the "style," the treatment and expression,--yes, it is +inimitable, best--Emersonian throughout. Such brevity, +simplicity, softness, homely grace; with such a penetrating +meaning, _soft_ enough, but irresistible, going down to the +depths and up to the heights, as _silent electricity_ goes. You +have done _very well;_ and many will know it ever better by +degrees.--Only one thing farther I will note: How you go as if +altogether on the "Over-Soul," the Ideal, the Perfect or +Universal and Eternal in this life of ours; and take so little +heed of the frightful quantities of _friction_ and perverse +impediment there everywhere are; the reflections upon which in +my own poor life made me now and then very sad, as I read you. +Ah me, ah me; what a vista it is, mournful, beautiful, +_unfathomable_ as Eternity itself, these last fifty years of Time +to me.-- + +Let me not forget to thank you for that _fourth_ page of your +Note; I should say it was almost the most interesting of all. +News from yourself at first hand; a momentary glimpse into the +actual Household at Concord, face to face, as in years of old! +True, I get vague news of you from time to time; but what are +these in comparison?--If you _will,_ at the eleventh hour, turn +over a new leaf, and write me Letters again,--but I doubt _you +won't._ And yet were it not worth while, think you? [Greek]-- +will be here _anon._--My kindest regards to your wife. Adieu, my +ever-kind Old Friend. + +Yours faithfully always, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXXIV. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 17 June, 1870 + +My Dear Carlyle,--Two* unanswered letters filled and fragrant and +potent with goodness will not let me procrastinate another +minute, or I shall sink and deserve to sink into my dormouse +condition. You are of the Anakim, and know nothing of the +debility and postponement of the blonde constitution. Well, +if you shame us by your reservoir inexhaustible of force, +you indemnify and cheer some of us, or one of us, by charges +of electricity. + +-------- +* One seems to be missing. +-------- + +Your letter of April came, as ever-more than ever, if possible-- +full of kindness, and making much of our small doings and +writings, and seemed to drive me to instant acknowledgment; but +the oppressive engagement of writing and reading eighteen +lectures on Philosophy to a class of graduates in the College, +and these in six successive weeks, was a task a little more +formidable in prospect and in practice than any foregoing one. +Of course, it made me a prisoner, took away all rights of +friendship, honor, and justice, and held me to such frantic +devotion to my work as must spoil that also. + +Well, it is now ended, and has no shining side but this one, that +materials are collected and a possibility shown me how a +repetition of the course next year--which is appointed--will +enable me partly out of these materials, and partly by large +rejection of these, and by large addition to them, to construct a +fair report of what I have read and thought on the subject. I +doubt the experts in Philosophy will not praise my discourses;-- +but the topics give me room for my guesses, criticism, +admirations and experiences with the accepted masters, and also +the lessons I have learned from the hidden great. I have the +fancy that a realist is a good corrector of formalism, no matter +how incapable of syllogism or continuous linked statement. To +great results of thought and morals the steps are not many, and +it is not the masters who spin the ostentatious continuity. + +I am glad to hear that the last sent book from me arrived safely. +You were too tender and generous in your first notice of it, I +fear. But with whatever deductions for your partiality, I know +well the unique value of Carlyle's praise. Many things crowd to +be said on this little paper. Though I could see no harm in the +making known the bequest of books to Cambridge,--no harm, but +sincere pleasure, and honor of the donor from all good men,--yet +on receipt of your letter touching that, I went back to President +Eliot, and told him your opinion on newspapers. He said it was +necessarily communicated to the seven persons composing the +Corporation, but otherwise he had been very cautious, and it +would not go into print. + +You are sending me a book, and Chapman's Homer it is? Are you +bound by your Arabian bounty to a largess whenever you think of +your friend? And you decry the book too. 'T-is long since I +read it, or in it, but the apotheosis of Homer, in the dedication +to Prince Henry, "Thousands of years attending," &c., is one of +my lasting inspirations. The book has not arrived yet, as the +letter always travels faster, but shall be watched and received +and announced. + +But since you are all bounty and care for me, where are the new +volumes of the Library Edition of Carlyle? I received duly, as I +wrote you in a former letter, nine Volumes,--_Sartor; Life of +Schiller;_ five Vols. of _Miscellanies; French Revolution;_ +these books oddly addressed to my name, but at _Cincinnati,_ +Massachusetts. Whether they went to Ohio, and came back to +Boston, I know not. Two volumes came later, duplicates of two +already received, and were returned at my request by Fields & Co. +with an explanation. But no following volume has come. I write +all this because you said in one letter that Mr. Chapman assured +you that every month a book was despatched to my address. + +But what do I read in our Boston Newspapers twice in the last +three days? That "Thomas Carlyle is coming to America," and the +tidings cordially greeted by the editors; though I had just +received your letter silent to any such point. Make that story +true, though it had never a verisimilitude since thirty odd years +ago, and you shall make many souls happy and perhaps show you so +many needs and opportunities for beneficent power that you cannot +be allowed to grow old or withdraw. Was I not once promised a +visit? This house entreats you earnestly and lovingly to come +and dwell in it. My wife and Ellen and Edward E. are thoroughly +acquainted with your greatness and your loveliness. And it is +but ten days of healthy sea to pass. + +So wishes heartily and affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXXV. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 28 September, 1870 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter, dated 15 June, never got to me till +about ten days ago; when my little Niece and I returned out of +Scotland, and a long, rather empty Visit there! It had missed me +here only by two or three days; and my highly _in_felicitous +Selectress of Letters to be forwarded had left _it_ carefully +aside as undeserving that honor,--good faithful old Woman, one +hopes she is greatly stronger on some sides than in this +literary-selective one. Certainly no Letter was forwarded that +had the hundredth part of the right to be so; certainly, of all +the Letters that came to me, or were left waiting here, this was, +in comparison, the one which might _not_ with propriety have been +left to lie stranded forever, or to wander on the winds forever!-- + +One of my first journeys was to Chapman, with vehement _rebuke_ +of this inconceivable "Cincinnati-Massachusetts" business. +_Stupiditas stupiditatum;_ I never in my life, not even in that +unpunctual House, fell in with anything that equaled it. Instant +amendment was at once undertaken for, nay it seems had been +already in part performed: "Ten volumes, following the nine you +already had, were despatched in Field & Co.'s box above two +months ago," so Chapman solemnly said and asseverated to me; so +that by this time you ought actually to have in hand nineteen +volumes; and the twentieth (first of _Friedrich_), which came +out ten days ago, is to go in Field & Co.'s Box this week, and +ought, not many days after the arrival of this Letter, to be in +Boston waiting for you there. The _Chapman's Homer_ (two +volumes) had gone with that first Field Packet; and would be +handed to you along with the ten volumes which were overdue. All +this was solemnly declared to me as on Affidavit; Chapman also +took extract of the Massachusetts passage in your Letter, in +order to pour it like ice-cold water on the head of his stupid +old Chief-Clerk, the instant the poor creature got back from his +rustication: alas, I am by no means certain that it will make a +new man of him, nor, in fact, that the whole of this amendatory +programme will get itself performed to equal satisfaction! But +you must write to me at once if it is not so; and done it shall +be in spite of human stupidity itself. Note, withal, these +things: Chapman sends no Books to America _except_ through Field +& Co.; he does not regularly send a Box at the middle of the +month; but he does "almost monthly send one Bog"; so that if +your monthly Volume do not start from London about the 15th, it +is due by the very _next_ Chapman-Field box; and if it at any +time don't come, I beg of you very much to make instant complaint +through Field & Co., or what would be still more effectual, +direct to myself. My malison on all Blockheadisms and torpid +stupidities and infidelities; of which this world is full!-- + +Your Letter had been anxiously enough waited for, a month before +my departure; but we will not mention the delay in presence of +what you were engaged with then. _Faustum sit;_ that truly was +and will be a Work worth doing your best upon; and I, if alive, +can promise you at least one reader that will do his best upon +your Work. I myself, often think of the Philosophies precisely +in that manner. To say truth, they do not otherwise rise in +esteem with me at all, but rather sink. The last thing I read of +that kind was a piece by Hegel, in an excellent Translation by +Stirling, right well translated, I could see, for every bit of it +was intelligible to me; but my feeling at the end of it was, +"Good Heavens, I have walked this road before many a good time; +but never with a Cannon-ball at each ankle before!" Science +also, Science falsely so called, is--But I will not enter upon +that with you just now. + +The Visit to America, alas, alas, is pure Moonshine. Never had +I, in late years, the least shadow of intention to undertake that +adventure; and I am quite at a loss to understand how the rumor +originated. One Boston Gentleman (a kind of universal +Undertaker, or Lion's Provider of Lecturers I think) informed me +that _"the Cable"_ had told him; and I had to remark, "And who +the devil told the Cable?" Alas, no, I fear I shall never dare +to undertake that big Voyage; which has so much of romance and +of reality behind it to me; _zu spat, zu spat._ I do sometimes +talk dreamily of a long Sea-Voyage, and the good the Sea has +often done me,--in times when good was still possible. It may +have been some vague folly of that kind that originated this +rumor; for rumors are like dandelion-seeds; and _the Cable_ I +dare say welcomes them all that have a guinea in their pocket. + +Thank you for blocking up that Harvard matter; provided it don't +go into the Newspapers, all is right. Thank you a thousand times +for that thrice-kind potential welcome, and flinging wide open +your doors and your hearts to me at Concord. The gleam of it is +like sunshine in a subterranean place. Ah me, Ah me! May God be +with you all, dear Emerson. + +Yours ever, + T. Carlyle + + + + +CLXXXVI. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 15 October, 1870 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I am the ignoblest of all men in my perpetual +short-comings to you. There is no example of constancy like +yours, and it always stings my stupor into temporary recovery and +wonderful resolution to accept the noble challenge. But "the +strong hours conquer us," and I am the victim of miscellany,-- +miscellany of designs, vast debility, and procrastination. + +Already many days before your letter came, Fields sent me a +package from you, which he said he had found a little late, +because they were covered up in a box of printed sheets of other +character, and this treasure was not at first discovered. They +are,--_Life of Sterling; Latter Day Pamphlets; Past and +Present; Heroes;_ 5 Vols. _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches._ +Unhappily, Vol. II. of _Cromwell_ is wanting, and there is a +duplicate of Vol. V. instead of it. Now, two days ago came your +letter, and tells me that the good old gods have also inspired +you to send me Chapman's Homer! and that it came--heroes with +heroes--in the same enchanted box. I went to Fields yesterday +and demanded the book. He ignored all,--even to the books he had +already sent me; called Osgood to council, and they agreed that +it must be that all these came in a bog of sheets of Dickens from +Chapman, which was sent to the Stereotypers at Cambridge; and +the box shall be instantly explored. We will see what tomorrow +shall find. As to the duplicates, I will say here, that I have +received two: first, the above-mentioned Vol. II. of _Cromwell;_ +and, second, long before, a second copy of _Sartor Resartus,_ +apparently instead of the Vol. I. of the _French Revolution,_ +which did not come. I proposed to Fields to send back to Chapman +these two duplicates. But he said, "No, it will cost as much as +the price of the books." I shall try to find in New York who +represents Chapman and sells these books, and put them to his +credit there, in exchange for the volumes I lack. Meantime, my +serious thanks for all these treasures go to you,--steadily good +to my youth and my age. + +Your letter was most welcome, and most in that I thought I read, +in what you say of not making the long-promised visit hither, a +little willingness to come. Think again, I pray you, of that +Ocean Voyage, which is probably the best medicine and restorative +which remains to us at your age and mine. Nine or ten days will +bring you (and commonly with unexpected comfort and easements on +the way) to Boston. Every reading person in America holds you in +exceptional regard, and will rejoice in your arrival. They have +forgotten your scarlet sins before or during the war. I have +long ceased to apologize for or explain your savage sayings about +American or other republics or publics, and am willing that +anointed men bearing with them authentic charters shall be laws +to themselves as Plato willed. Genius is but a large infusion of +Deity, and so brings a prerogative all its own. It has a right +and duty to affront and amaze men by carrying out its perceptions +defiantly, knowing well that time and fate will verify and +explain what time and fate have through them said. We must not +suggest to Michel Angelo, or Machiavel, or Rabelais, or Voltaire, +or John Brown of Osawatomie (a great man), or Carlyle, how they +shall suppress their paradoxes and check their huge gait to keep +accurate step with the procession on the street sidewalk. They +are privileged persons, and may have their own swing for me. + +I did not mean to chatter so much, but I wish you would come out +hither and read our possibilities now being daily disclosed, and +our actualities which are not nothing. I shall like to show you +my near neighbors, topographically or practically. A near +neighbor and friend, E. Rockwood Hoar, whom you saw in his youth, +is now an inestimable citizen in this State, and lately, in +President Grant's Cabinet, Attorney-General of the United States. +He lives in this town and carries it in his hand. Another is +John M. Forbes, a strictly private citizen, of great executive +ability, and noblest affections, a motive power and regulator +essential to our City, refusing all office, but impossible to +spare; and these are men whom to name the voice breaks and the +eye is wet. A multitude of young men are growing up here of high +promise, and I compare gladly the social poverty of my youth with +the power on which these draw. The Lowell race, again, in our +War yielded three or four martyrs so able and tender and true, +that James Russell Lowell cannot allude to them in verse or prose +but the public is melted anew. Well, all these know you well, +have read and will read you, yes, and will prize and use your +benefaction to the College; and I believe it would add hope, +health, and strength to you to come and see them. + +In my much writing I believe I have left the chief things unsaid. +But come! I and my house wait for you. + +Affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXXVIa. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 10 April, 1871 + +My Dear Friend,--I fear there is no pardon from you, none from +myself, for this immense new gap in our correspondence. Yet no +hour came from month to month to write a letter, since whatever +deliverance I got from one web in the last year served only to +throw me into another web as pitiless. Yet what gossamer these +tasks of mine must appear to your might! Believe that the +American climate is unmanning, or that one American whom you know +is severely taxed by Lilliput labors. The last hot summer +enfeebled me till my young people coaxed me to go with Edward to +the White Hills, and we climbed or were dragged up Agiocochook, +in August, and its sleet and snowy air nerved me again for the +time. But the booksellers, whom I had long ago urged to reprint +Plutarch's _Morals,_ claimed some forgotten promise, and set me +on reading the old patriarch again, and writing a few pages about +him, which no doubt cost me as much time and pottering as it +would cost you to write a History. Then an "Oration" was due to +the New England Society in New York, on the 250th anniversary of +the Plymouth Landing,--as I thought myself familiar with the +story, and holding also some opinions thereupon. But in the +Libraries I found alcoves full of books and documents reckoned +essential; and, at New York, after reading for an hour to the +great assembly out of my massy manuscript, I refused to print a +line until I could revise and complete my papers;--risking, of +course, the nonsense of their newspaper reporters. This pill +swallowed and forgotten, it was already time for my Second +"Course on Philosophy" at Cambridge,--which I had accepted again +that I might repair the faults of the last year. But here were +eighteen lectures, each to be read sixteen miles away from my +house, to go and come,--and the same work and journey twice in +each week,--and I have just got through the doleful ordeal. + +I have abundance of good readings and some honest writing on the +leading topics,--but in haste and confusion they are misplaced +and spoiled. I hope the ruin of no young man's soul will here or +hereafter be charged to me as having wasted his time or +confounded his reason. + +Now I come to the raid of a London bookseller, Hotten, (of whom I +believe I never told you,) on my forgotten papers in the old +_Dials,_ and other pamphlets here. Conway wrote me that he could +not be resisted,--would certainly steal good and bad,--but might +be guided in the selection. I replied that the act was odious to +me, and I promised to denounce the man and his theft to any +friends I might have in England; but if, instead of printing +then, he would wait a year, I would make my own selection, with +the addition of some later critical papers, and permit the book. +Mr. Ireland in Manchester, and Conway in London, took the affair +kindly in hand, and Hotten acceded to my change. And that is the +next task that threatens my imbecility. But now, ten days ago or +less, my friend John M. Forbes has come to me with a proposition +to carry me off to California, the Yosemite, the Mammoth trees, +and the Pacific, and, after much resistance, I have surrendered +for six weeks, and we set out tomorrow. And hence this sheet of +confession,--that I may not drag a lengthening chain. Meantime, +you have been monthly loading me with good for evil. I have just +counted twenty-three volumes of Carlyle's Library Edition, in +order on my shelves, besides two, or perhaps three, which Ellery +Channing has borrowed. Add, that the precious Chapman's _Homer_ +came safely, though not till months after you had told me of its +departure, and shall be guarded henceforward with joy. + +_Wednesday, 13, Chicago._--Arrived here and can bring this little +sheet to the post-office here. My daughter Edith Forbes, and +her husband William H. Forbes, and three other friends, accompany me, +and we shall overtake Mr. Forbes senior tomorrow at Burlington, Iowa. + +The widow of one of the noblest of our young martyrs in the War, +Col. Lowell,* cousin [nephew] of James Russell Lowell, sends me +word that she wishes me to give her a note of introduction to +you, confiding to me that she has once written a letter to you +which procured her the happiest reply from you, and I shall obey +her, and you will see her and own her rights. Still continue to +be magnanimous to your friend, + + --R.W. Emerson + +--------- +* Charles Russell Lowell, to be remembered always with honor in +company with his brother James Jackson Lowell and his cousin +William Lowell Putnam,--a shining group among the youths who have +died for their country. +--------- + + + + +CLXXXVII. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 4 June, 1871 + +Dear Emerson,--Your Letter gave me great pleasure. A gleam of +sunshine after a long tract of lowering weather. It is not you +that are to blame for this sad gap in our correspondence; it is +I, or rather it is my misfortunes, and miserable inabilities, +broken resolutions, etc., etc. The truth is, the winter here was +very unfriendly to me; broke ruinously into my sleep; and +through that into every other department of my businesses, +spiritual and temporal; so that from about New-Year's Day last I +have been, in a manner, good for nothing,--nor am yet, though I +do again feel as if the beautiful Summer weather might perhaps do +something for me. This it was that choked every enterprise; and +postponed your Letter, week after week, through so many months. +Let us not speak of it farther! + +Note, meanwhile, I have no disease about me; nothing but the +gradual decay of any poor digestive faculty I latterly had,--or +indeed ever had since I was three and twenty years of age. Let +us be quiet with it; accept it as a mode of exit, of which +always there must be _some_ mode. + +I have got done with all my press-correctings, editionings, and +paltry bother of that kind: Vol. 30 will embark for you about +the middle of this month; there are then to follow ("uniform," +as the printers call it, though in smaller type) a little volume +called _General Index;_ and three more volumes of _Translations +from the German;_ after which we two will reckon and count; and +if there is any _lacuna_ on the Concord shelf, at once make it +good. Enough, enough on that score. + +The Hotten who has got hold of you here is a dirty little pirate, +who snatches at everybody grown fat enough to yield him a bite +(paltry, unhanged creature); so that in fact he is a symbol to +you of your visible rise in the world here; and, with Conway's +vigilance to help, will do you good and not evil. Glad am I, in +any case, to see so much new spiritual produce still ripening +around you; and you ought to be glad, too. Pray Heaven you may +long _keep your right hand_ steady: you, too, I can perceive, +will never, any more than myself, learn to "write by dictation" +in a manner that will be supportable to you. I rejoice, also, to +hear of such a magnificent adventure as that you are now upon. +Climbing the backbone of America; looking into the Pacific Ocean +too, and the gigantic wonders going on there. I fear you won't +see Brigham Young, however? He also to me is one of the products +out there;--and indeed I may confess to you that the doings in +that region are not only of a big character, but of a great;--and +that in my occasional explosions against "Anarchy," and my +inextinguishable hatred of _it,_ I privately whisper to myself, +"Could any Friedrich Wilhelm, now, or Friedrich, or most perfect +Governor you could hope to realize, guide forward what is +America's essential task at present faster or more completely +than 'anarchic America' herself is now doing?" _Such_ "Anarchy" +has a great deal to say for itself,--(would to Heaven ours of +England had as much!)--and points towards grand _anti_-Anarchies +in the future; in fact, I can already discern in it huge +quantities of Anti-Anarchy in the "impalpable-powder" condition; +and hope, with the aid of centuries, immense things from it, in +my private mind! + +Good Mrs. --- has never yet made her appearance; but shall be +welcome whenever she does. + +Did you ever hear the name of an aged, or elderly, fantastic +fellow-citizen of yours, called J. Lee Bliss, who designates +himself O.F. and A.K., i.e. "Old Fogey" and "Amiable Kuss"? He +sent me, the other night, a wonderful miscellany of symbolical +shreds and patches; which considerably amused me; and withal +indicated good-will on the man's part; who is not without humor, +in sight, and serious intention or disposition. If you ever did +hear of him, say a word on the subject next time you write. + +And above all things _write._ The instant you get home from +California, or see this, let me hear from you what your +adventures have been and what the next are to be. Adieu, +dear Emerson. + +Yours ever affectionately, + T. Carlyle + +Mrs. --- sends a note from Piccadilly this new morning (June 5th); +_call_ to be made there today by Niece Mary, card left, etc., +etc. Promises to be an agreeable Lady. + +Did you ever hear of such a thing as this suicidal Finis of the +French "Copper Captaincy"; gratuitous Attack on Germany, and +ditto Blowing-up of Paris by its own hand! An event with +meanings unspeakable,--deep as the. _Abyss._-- + +If you ever write to C. Norton in Italy, send him my kind +remembrances. + +--T. C. (with about the velocity of Engraving--on lead!)* + +--------- +* The letter was dictated, but the postscript, from the first +signature, was written in a tremulous hand by Carlyle himself. +--------- + + + + +CLXXXVIII. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 30 June, 1871 + +My Dear Carlyle,--'T is more than time that you should hear from +me whose debts to you always accumulate. But my long journey to +California ended in many distractions on my return home. I found +Varioloid in my house... and I was not permitted to enter it for +many days, and could only talk with wife, son, and daughter from +the yard.... I had crowded and closed my Cambridge lectures in +haste, and went to the land of Flowers invited by John M. Forbes, +one of my most valued friends, father of my daughter Edith's +husband. With him and his family and one or two chosen guests, +the trip was made under the best conditions of safety, comfort, +and company, I measuring for the first time one entire line of +the Country. + +California surprises with a geography, climate, vegetation, +beasts, birds, fishes even, unlike ours; the land immense; the +Pacific sea; Steam brings the near neighborhood of Asia; and +South America at your feet; the mountains reaching the altitude +of Mont Blanc; the State in its six hundred miles of latitude +producing all our Northern fruits, and also the fig, orange, and +banana. But the climate chiefly surprised me. The Almanac said +April; but the day said June;--and day after day for six weeks +uninterrupted sunshine. November and December are the rainy +months. The whole Country, was covered with flowers, and all of +them unknown to us except in greenhouses. Every bird that I know +at home is represented here, but in gayer plumes. + +On the plains we saw multitudes of antelopes, hares, gophers,-- +even elks, and one pair of wolves on the plains; the grizzly +bear only in a cage. We crossed one region of the buffalo, but +only saw one captive. We found Indians at every railroad +station,--the squaws and papooses begging, and the "bucks," as +they wickedly call them, lounging. On our way out, we left the +Pacific Railroad for twenty-four hours to visit Salt Lake; +called on Brigham Young--just seventy years old--who received us +with quiet uncommitting courtesy, at first,--a strong-built, +self-possessed, sufficient man with plain manners. He took early +occasion to remark that "the one-man-power really meant all- +men's-power." Our interview was peaceable enough, and rather +mended my impression of the man; and, after our visit, I read in +the Descret newspaper his Speech to his people on the previous +Sunday. It avoided religion, but was full of Franklinian good +sense. In one point, he says: "Your fear of the Indians is +nonsense. The Indians like the white men's food. Feed them +well, and they will surely die." He is clearly a sufficient +ruler, and perhaps civilizer of his kingdom of blockheads ad +interim; but I found that the San Franciscans believe that this +exceptional power cannot survive Brigham. + +I have been surprised--but it is months ago--by a letter from +Lacy Garbett, the Architect, whom I do not know, but one of whose +books, about "Design in Architecture," I have always valued. +This letter, asking of me that Americans shall join Englishmen in +a Petition to Parliament against pulling down Ancient Saxon +buildings, is written in a way so wild as to suggest insanity, +and I have not known how to answer it. At my "Saturday Club" in +Boston I sat at dinner by an English lord,--whose name I have +forgotten,--from whom I tried to learn what laws Parliament had +passed for the repairs of old religious Foundations, that could +make them the victims of covetous Architects. But he assured me +there were none such, and that he himself was President of a +Society in his own County for the protection of such buildings. +So that I am left entirely in the dark in regard to the fact +and Garbett's letter. He claims to speak both for Ruskin +and himself. + +I grieve to hear no better account of your health than your last +letter gives. The only contradiction of it, namely, the power of +your pen in this reproduction of thirty books,--and such books,-- +is very important and very consoling to me. A great work to be +done is the best insurance, and I sleep quietly, notwithstanding +these sad bulletins,--believing that you cannot be spared. + +Fare well, dear friend, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CLXXXIX. Emerson to Carlyle + +Concord, 4 September, 1871 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I hope you will have returned safely from the +Orkneys in time to let my son Edward W.E. see your face on his +way through London to Germany, whither he goes to finish his +medical studies,--no, not finish, but prosecute. Give him your +blessing, and tell him what he should look for in his few days in +London, and what in your Prussia. He is a good youth, and we can +spare him only for this necessity. I should like well to +accompany him as far as to your hearthstone, if only so I could +persuade you that it is but a ten-days ride for you thence to +mine,--a little farther than the Orkneys, and the outskirts of +land as good, and bigger. I read gladly in your letters some +relentings toward America,--deeper ones in your dealing with +Harvard College; and I know you could not see without interest +the immense and varied blossoming of our possibilities here,--of +all nationalities, too, besides our own. I have heard from Mrs. +--- twice lately, who exults in your kindness to her. + +Always affectionately, Yours, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXC. Emerson to Carlyle + +Baltimore, Md., 5 January, 1872 + +My Dear Carlyle,--I received from you through Mr. Chapman, just +before Christmas, the last rich instalment of your Library +Edition; viz. Vols. IV.-X. _Life of Friedrich;_ Vols. L-III. +_Translations from German;_ one volume General Index; eleven +volumes in all,--and now my stately collection is perfect. +Perfect too is your Victory. But I clatter my chains with joy, +as I did forty years ago, at your earliest gifts. Happy man you +should be, to whom the Heaven has allowed such masterly +completion. You shall wear your crown at the Pan-Saxon Games +with no equal or approaching competitor in sight,--well earned by +genius and exhaustive labor, and with nations for your pupils and +praisers. I count it my eminent happiness to have been so nearly +your contemporary, and your friend,--permitted to detect by its +rare light the new star almost before the Easterners had seen it, +and to have found no disappointment, but joyful confirmation +rather, in coming close to its orb. Rest, rest, now for a time; +I pray you, and be thankful. Meantime, I know well all your +perversities, and give them a wide berth. They seriously annoy a +great many worthy readers, nations of readers sometimes,--but I +heap them all as style, and read them as I read Rabelais's +gigantic humors which astonish in order to force attention, and +by and by are seen to be the rhetoric of a highly virtuous +gentleman who _swears._ I have been quite too busy with fast +succeeding _jobs_ (I may well call them), in the last year, to +have read much in these proud books; but I begin to see daylight +coming through my fogs, and I have not lost in the least my +appetite for reading,--resolve, with my old Harvard professor, +"to retire and read the Authors." + +I am impatient to deserve your grand Volumes by reading in them +with all the haughty airs that belong to seventy years which I +shall count if I live till May, 1873. Meantime I see well that +you have lost none of your power, and I wish that you would let +in some good Eckermann to dine with you day by day, and competent +to report your opinions,--for you can speak as well as you can +write, and what the world to come should know... + +Affectionately, + R.W. Emerson + + + + +CXCI. Carlyle to Emerson + +5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, 2 April, 1872 + +Dear Emerson,--I am covered with confusion, astonishment, and +shame to think of my long silence. You wrote me two beautiful +letters; none friendlier, brighter, wiser could come to me from +any quarter of the world; and I have not answered even by a +sign. Promptly and punctually my poor heart did answer; but to +do it outwardly,--as if there had lain some enchantment on me,-- +was beyond my power. The one thing I can say in excuse or +explanation is, that ever since Summer last, I have been in an +unusually dyspeptic, peaking, pining, and dispirited condition; +and have no right hand of my own for writing, nor, for several +months, had any other that was altogether agreeable to me. But +in fine I don't believe you lay any blame or anger on me at all; +and I will say no more about it, but only try to repent and do +better next time. + +Your letter from the Far West was charmingly vivid and free; one +seemed to attend you personally, and see with one's own eyes the +_notabilia,_ human and other, of those huge regions, in your +swift flight through them to and from. I retain your little +etching of Brigham Young as a bit of real likeness; I have often +thought of your transit through Chicago since poor Chicago itself +vanished out of the world on wings of fire. There is something +huge, painful, and almost appalling to me in that wild Western +World of yours;--and especially I wonder at the gold-nuggeting +there, while plainly every gold-nuggeter is no other than a +criminal to Human Society, and has to _steal_ the exact value of +his gold nugget from the pockets of all the posterity of Adam, +now and for some time to come, in this world. I conclude it is a +bait used by All-wise Providence to attract your people out +thither, there to build towns, make roads, fell forests (or plant +forests), and make ready a Dwelling-place for new Nations, who +will find themselves called to quite other than nugget-hunting. +In the hideous stew of Anarchy, in which all English Populations +present themselves to my dismal contemplation at this day, it is +a solid consolation that there will verily, in another fifty +years, be above a hundred million men and women on this Planet +who can all read Shakespeare and the English Bible and the (also +for a long time biblical and noble) history of their Mother +Country,--and proceed again to do, unless the Devil be in them, +as their Forebears did, or better, if they have the heart!-- + +Except that you are a thousand times too kind to me, your second +Letter also was altogether charming.... + +Do you read Ruskin's _Fors Clavigera,_ which he cheerily tells me +gets itself reprinted in America? If you don't, _do,_ I advise +you. Also his _Munera Pulveris,_ Oxford-_Lectures_ on Art, and +whatever else he is now writing,--if you can manage to get them +(which is difficult here, owing to the ways he has towards the +bibliopolic world!). There is nothing going on among us as +notable to me as those fierce lightning-bolts Ruskin is copiously +and desperately pouring into the black world of Anarchy all +around him. No other man in England that I meet has in him the +divine rage against iniquity, falsity, and baseness that Ruskin +has, and that every man ought to have. Unhappily he is not a +strong man; one might say a weak man rather; and has not the +least prudence of management; though if he can hold out for +another fifteen years or so, he may produce, even in this way, a +great effect. God grant it, say I. Froude is coming to you in +October. You will find him a most clear, friendly, ingenious, +solid, and excellent man; and I am very glad to find you among +those who are to take care of him when he comes to your new +Country. Do your best and wisest towards him, for my sake, +withal. He is the valuablest Friend I now have in England, +nearly though not quite altogether the one man in talking with +whom I can get any real profit or comfort. Alas, alas, here is +the end of the paper, dear Emerson; and I had still a whole +wilderness of things to say. Write to me, or even do not write, +and I will surely write again. + +I remain as ever Your Affectionate Friend, + T. Carlyle + + + +In November, 1872, Emerson went to England, and the two friends +met again. After a short stay he proceeded to the Continent and +Egypt, returning to London in the spring of 1873. For the last +time Carlyle and he saw each other. In May, Emerson returned +home. After this time no letters passed between him and Carlyle. +They were both old men. Writing had become difficult to them; +and little was left to say. + +Carlyle died, eighty-five years old, on the 5th of February, +1881. Emerson died, seventy-nine years old, on the 27th of +April, 1882. + +------------- + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle +and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II., by Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EMERSON AND CARLYLE *** + +***** This file should be named 13660.txt or 13660.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/6/6/13660/ + + + +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. 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