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798 CARLYLE age, the march of the intellect, and the pro- gress of the species, is evidence of an unhealthy state, the precursor and prognostic of still worse health." This idea crops out in the " French Revolution " and many of the essays, and in some of liis later works is developed still further into the assumption that all nobleness, virtue, and belief have died out of the world; that modern civilization is a hollow sham ; and that mankind are worse and worse off than they were 500 years ago. " The Frencli Revolu- tion," notwithstanding the critics of the day, made an immediate mark. Its publication was delayed by the accidental burning of the manu- script of the second volume just as it was ready for the printers. A friend borrowed it to read, and he in turn lent it to another. The latter having left it at night in a confused heap on his library table, the servant in the morn- ing used nearly the whole of it to kindle a fire. Oarlyle set about rewriting it, but failed in the first attempt through mental depression. He then devoted several weeks to novel-reading as a relaxation, and so finally succeeded in re- producing his destroyed work. In 1839 he published a small work on " Chartism," in 1840 "Heroes and Hero Worship," and in 1843 "Past and Present," chiefly notable for their extreme pessimist views, and for the extent to which the affectation in style was carried. Du- ring these years he also wrote for the "Edin- burgh Review " and the " Foreign Quarterly Review," and contributed to " Fraser's Maga- zine " some of his best papers, notable among which were "Count Cagliostro" and "The Diamond Necklace." After 1844 he furnished few contributions to periodical literature. In 1845 he published the " Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell," with copious remarks and annotations, a work which has done more than any other to set in its true light the character of the great lord protector. In 1850 he published a series of "Latter-Day Pam- phlets," dealing with the questions of the day, and by far the least valuable of his works. In 1851 appeared the " Life of John Sterling," an admirable biography, in which he returned to the earlier purity of style which character- ized the "Life of Schiller." He had in the mean while been long engaged upon the " His- tory of Friedrich the Second, called Frederick the Great." The first two volumes appeared in 1858, two more in 1862, and the concluding two in 1864. With this work Carlyle's literary life may probably be supposed to have closed. In 1865 he was elected rector of Edinburgh university, and delivered his inaugural address April 2, 1866. During the American civil war he was open in avowing his belief in the over- throw of the republic. In 1869 he published a magazine article in the manner of his " Lat- ter-Day Pamphlets," entitled "Shooting Ni- agara," in which he vehemently opposed the project of electoral reform in Great Britain. During the Franco-German war he took sides with Germany, and in November, 1870, pub- i lished in the "Times " two long letters on the subject. Carlyle's merit as an essayist is un- disputed. His claim to the highest place is called in question in favor of no one, unless it be Macaulay. As a historian he brings to his work the first great requisite of unwearied in- dustry in the collection of facts. The brilliant pictures in the " French Revolution " are elab- orated to the minutest detail from an immense mass of contemporary narratives. For " Fred- erick the Great" he appears to have read and noted every book, pamphlet, and despatch published in -relation to that monarch, and to have examined innumerable maps and prints in order to make himself master of every point in topography and local scenery. His descriptions of campaigns and battles are exceeded by noth- ing in military literature. Viewed as a series of pictures, his two histories have certainly no superior, perhaps no equal, and their effect in this regard is enhanced rather than diminished by the idiosyncrasies in manner which he has chosen to adopt. But he lacks that soundness of judgment which forms the still higher re- quisite of a great historian. Everything is col- ored and distorted by the medium through which he looks. In his pessimist philosophy there are but three virtues: earnest belief, which has long since gone from the world ; force and au- dacity, which overcome every obstacle ; and a prudent thrift, which makes the best of a bad state of things. He has a sort of liking for Benjamin Franklin because "he taught the American people how by frugality and labor a man may buffet the waves of fortune, and swim straight on to prosperity and success." In a man whom he likes he can see little that is bad; in one whom he dislikes nothing either good or even worthy of respect. Mi- rabeau and Danton are eulogized for their rude force; Robespierre is only a contempt- ible sea-green cockscomb playing the part of ruler. In Bonaparte he sees only "the great highwayman of history, whose habit was to clutch king or kaiser by the throat, and swear that if they did not stand and deliver he would blow their brains out ; and who did a profit- able trade at this sort of thing until another man, Arthur, duke of Wellington, who had learned the trick, succeeded in clutching him, and there was the end of him." Frederick had the virtues of force and thrift, the only ones now or for some generations extant, and so he makes a hero of him. Carlyle wholly lacks the power of intellectual perspective. Every- thing is great or small, not as it is in itself or in its relation to other things, but in proportion as it is picturesque. The life of Frederick is full of episodes in which the most trifling de- tails are elaborated as they would be in a nov- el. The march of the history is stayed while the writer is picking weeds or flowers by the wayside. For literature, after his early enthu- siasm for that of Germany, he affects supreme contempt. Men who know him best, and some who have heard Coleridge talk, say that they