THE HESPERIAN STUDENT.
far better work in stimulating them to get the best
education at any sacrifice, in the full confidence
that it is the best paying and most "practical" in
vestment that a young man can make. The time is
fast approaching when not only part but all of this
opposition will be removed.
ghc gtuthnt'fi gcwylwoh.
OARLTLE AND LORD JEFFREY.
Perhaps there is no essay of Carlyle's which so shames
him, which so exhibits his own small, dried up heart
and his expanded, never expended, opinion of himself,
as his "reminiscence" of Lord Jeffrey. It lias Hie mark
of being composed in somewhat simpler style than much
of Carlyle's work and contains one or two quite brill
iant epigrams, thrown in as mots, aside; but given as the
remembrance of the liTo of one who supposed himself
something more than an acquaintance, a friend, and with
whom friendly relations were maintained during life, it
is a discourteous exposure which should never have been
published. In it, Carlylo speaks and thinks constantly
of himself as infinitely the superior of his friend in learn
ing, depth of thought and "mysticism." Seldom has
here been revealed to the world such a vain and altos
gether treacherous person as Carlyle iu this shows him.
self to be.
From the first time they met, when Carlylo, the then im.
known, was very obsequious, Lord Jeffrey was a bencfac.
tor to him. He immediately printed in the Edinburgh
Review, I hen under his charge, the first article which the
young Carlylo offered him, a study of "Jean Paul," which
was quite in itself an introduction to the literary circles
of literary Edinburgh, and when the graver article on
"German Literature" followed, Thomas Carlylo found
himself already famous in a fashion Jeffrey had brought
him out and for this alone he should have been eternally
grateful, but he takes it rather as his due, all of it, though
he had been waiting now ten years to meet this famous
man I
They soon grow intimate, on the strength of what it is
hard to say, for they had little iu common it would seem.
They had "long discussions and Argumentative parry ings
and thrusting?," but as they were opposite in radical
principles neither could persuade the other; and so the
more obstinate concludes, wisely enough perhaps, that it
was not very profitable exercise. Jeffrey tried practically
to help ltis friend by getting a professor's chair at St.
Andrews and again at London University, but failed.
He seems to have been uniformly patient with the ims
pulsivo youth, even though, as Carlylo himself admits,
the younger man fctiuck a tone which did not quite bo
become their icspectivo ages and positions. Their visits
bnck and forth appear to have been free, of pleasure and
in sincere spirit.
In speaking of Airs. Jeffrey, the American Miss Wilkes,
Carlylo manages to drag in a most uncivilized, boorish
remark upon our civil war, a slur which should never
fail to be thrown in the baiance by all impartial readers
when making their estimate of Carlylo. Ho said, thou,
"She was the sister of tho 'Commodore Wilkes' who board,
ed the Trent some years ago, and almost iuyolvcd us in
war willi Yankee land, during Hint beautiful nigger agony
or 'civil war' ol theirs!" Turning tor relief from the
dark, word-jumbled Sartor Remrtus, or tho scarcely
more satisfactory Hero Worship U tho calm, meditative
review of a contemorary, must wo bo confronted witli a
sentence like the above, so unworthy tho pen of u man of
letters, so unlike a Briton. What shall wo say of the stylo
of a writer who will, from Hie most carefully poised Eng
lish sentences, fall at ono breath so low as to call our Into
war a "beautilul niggir agony."
As Carlylo rises in worldly reputation which ho al
ways affected to despise ho appears to think and care
less fjr Jeffrey. IIo was not rich, indeed he was poor,
and Jeffrey knew it aud in the kindest possible manner
offered to confer upon him an vinnuity of 100, which
Carlylo makes great show in refusing, with, "each man to
live on his own resources," and answers like that. But
ho found it convenient to borrow the same amount short.,
ly after from Lord Jeffrey. Upon which Carlysc "en
dcavorcd to bo thankful." And it is about this limo that
ho observes upon the learned barrister that ho did not find
his "tho brightest kind of Insight in regatd to any prov
ince whatever," re 'uses him the title of deep" and dis
covers that he had no views which ho (Carlylo) might
adopt in preference to his own. Such is self-willed con.
coit.
When Carlylo goes to London ho writes and obtains
favors fiom his friend, now the Lord Advocate aud in
Parliament, aud in return belittles the position aud sneers
at such callers as he happens to meet at the great man's
house, affirming that Jeffrey did not consort with literary
persons, but only with bores. Aud when Carlyle was re
fused by him tho position of observer in tho now Edin
burgh astronomical observatory, piesumably because
he was not fitted, he finds satisfaction in calling the man
who did get the place, another friend of Jeffrey's, "blear
eyed." After which their notes grow less. Did tho old
Scot over speak well of anyone? Of his wife, perhaps, to
whom ho applies in this reminiscence, (with questionable
propriety in such connection,) the most loving epithets.
Carlyle speaks of her constantly as his "dear Jeannie,"
and when she ceases her long correspondence with Jet
frey he calles her "my dearest." Perhaps it was lurking
jealousy, after all, despito his protest to the contrary, that
made Carlyle's friendship for Jeffrey less sincere than Jef.
frcy's for Carlyle. Jeflrey was much taken with tho wit.
ty young woman from the limo he first met her, discover,
cd an old cousinship, aud had common topics, "without
shadow of offence" on Carlyle'spart, as ho asserts. "Could
I grudge her the little bit of entertainment,'' he says,
"she might be able to extract from this poor harmless
sport." But ihe satisfaction with which the biographer
chronicles the time when she "gayo him up," (referring to
Jeffrey) is not to be hidden. All actions haye motives.
Carlylo adds iu a note to this essay, written at Meutone,
that his internal conditions are "baddish or bad." 0.
VOLTAIRE.
It has been well said that each age of human expert,
once produces men who drill and blast enough stono and
mnrblo for generations to labor on ; pioneers who hew
away the old growtii of timber and prepare the remains
for use in constructing dwellings for human thought dur.
ing another period of growth. But it often happens that
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