“ As a

i law.

a

produces yel.. Jw, and the kind which this truth he is powerful. That which produces green, divine their effects he has discovered is immortal and effi. from their nature, predict to people the cacious : tint under which the object we are

“ The works of a man, bury them under wha; about to present to them will appear, guano-mountains and obscene owl-droppings construct beforehand the system of you will, do not perish, cannot perish. What every mind, and perhaps one day free of Heroism, what of Eternal Light was in a vurselves from every system.

Man and his Life, is with very great exactness

added to the Eternities ; remains for ever a new poet,” said Goethe, “ I am a polytheist; divine portion of the Sum of Things." * as a naturalist, a pantheist ; as a moral “No nobler feeling than this of admiration man, a deist; and in order to express of man. It is to this hour, and at all hours, the

for one higher than himself dwells in the breast my mind, I need all these forms." In

vivifying influence in man's life. Religion I fact, all these glasses are serviceable, find stand upon it. ... What therefore is for they all show us some new aspect loyalty proper, the life-breath of all society, but of things. The important point is to

an effluence of Hero-worship, submissive adhave not one, but several, to employ on Hero-worship.” †

miration for the truly great? Society is founded each at the suitable moment, not to mind, the particular color of these This feeling is the deepest part of man. glasses, but to know that behind these It exists even in this levelling and de. million moving poetical tints, optics structive age: “I seem to see in this only prove transformations governed by indestructibility of Hero-worship the

everlasting adamant lower than which

the confused wreck of revolutionary § 4.-CONCEPTION OF HISTORY. things cannot fall.” 1

II.
I.

We have here a German theory, but “ Universal History, the history of what man transformed, made precise, thickened has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the after the English manner. The GerHistory of the Great Men who have worked here. They were the leaders of men, these mans said that every nation, period, great ones ; the modellers, patterns, and in a civilization, had its idea ; that is its wide sense creators, of whatsoever the general chief feature, from which the rest were mass of men contrived to do or to attain ; all things that we see standing accomplished in the derived; so that philosophy, religion, world are properly the outer material result, the arts, and morals, all the elements of practical realisation

and embodiment of thought and action, could be deduced Thoughts that dwelt in the Great Men sent from some original and fundamental into the world; the soul of the whole world's history, it may justly be considered, were the quality, from which all proceeded and history of these.' .

in which all ended. Where Hegel Whatever they be, poets, reformers, heroic sentiment.' It is more palpable

proposed an idea, Carlyle proposes a writers, men of action, revealers, he and moral. To complete his escape gives them all a mystical character :

from the vague, he considers this sen. “Such a man is what we call an original timent in a hero. He must give to ab man; he comes to us at first-hand. A mesa stractions a body and soul; he is not senger he, sent from the Infinite Unknown with at ease in pure conceptions, and wishes tidings to us. • : Direct from the Inner Fact of things ;-he lives, and has .) live, in daily to touch a real being. communion with that. Hearsays cannot hide But this being, as he conceives it, is it from him; he is blind, homeless, miserable, an abstract of the rest. For according following hearsays; it glares in upon him. It is from the heart of the world that he comes;

to him, the hero contains and repre. he is portion of the primal reality of things.” I sents the civilization in which he is In vain the ignorance of his age and comprised; he has discovered, prohis own imperfections mar the purity ception, and in this his age has followed

claimed or practised an original con. of his original vision; he ever attains him. The knowledge of a heroic sen some immutable and life-giving truth; timent thus gives us a knowledge for this truth he is listened to, and by

a masters.

whole age. By this method Carlyle movement. Let the metaphysicians has emerged beyond biography. He draw up deducticns and formulas, o has rediscovered the grand views of his the politicians expound situations ard

He has felt, like them, that constitutions. Man is not an inen a civilization, vast and dispersed as it being, moulded by a constitution, nor a is over time and space, forms an indi. lifeless being expressed by formula ; visible whole. He has combined in a he is an active and living soul, capable systerr. of hero-worship the scattered of acting, discovering, creating, devo fragments which Hegel united by a law. ting himself, and before all, of daring; He lias derived from a common senti- genuine history is an epic of heroism. ment the events which the Germans This idea is, in my opinion, brilliant derived from a common definition. He and luminous. For men have not done has comprehended the deep and distant great things without great emotions connection of things, such as bind man The first and sovereign motive of ar. to his time, such as connect the works extraordinary revolution is an extraor. of accomplished thought with the stut dinary sentiment. Then we see appear terings of infant thought, such as link and swell a lofty and all-powerful pasthe wise inventions of modern consti- sion, which has burst the old dykes, tutions to the disorderly furies of prim- and hurled the current of things into a itive barbarism :

new bed. All starts from this, and it

is this which we must observe. Let us “Silent, with closed lips, as I fancy them; leave metaphysical formulas and politiunconscious that they were specially brave defying the wild ocean with its monsters, and cal considerations, and regard the inner all men and things ;-progenitors of our own state of every mind. Let us quit bare Blakes and Nelsons. . . . Hrolf or Rollo, Duke of Normandy, the wild Sea-king, has a share in narrative, forget abstract explanations, governing England at this hour." +

and study impassioned souls. A revo“No wild Saint Dominics and Thebaid lution is only the birth of a great sentiEremites, there had been no melodious Dante; ment. What is this sentiment, how is rough Practical Endeavour, Scandinavian and other, from Odin to Walter Raleigh, from Ulfila it bound to others, what is its degree, to Cranmer, enabled Shakspeare to speak, Nay, source, effect, how does it transform the Snished Poet, I remark sometimes, is a the imagination, understanding, comsymptom that his epoch itself has reached per mon inclinations; what passions feed fection and is finished ; that before song there will be a new epoch, new Reformers it, what proportion of folly and reason needed." +

does it embrace these are the main His great poetical or practical works questions. If any one wishes to repreonly publish or apply this dominant sent to me the history of Buddhism, he idea ; the historian makes use of it, to ascetics who, deadened by the contem.

must show me the calm despair of the rediscover the primitive sentiment which engenders them, and to form the plation of the infinite void, and by the aggregate conception which unites expectation of final annihilation, attain them.

in their monotonous quietude the senti.

ment of universal fraternity. If any III.

one wishes to represent to me the his.

tory of Christianity, he must show me Hence a new fashion of writing 'his- the soul of a Saint John or Saint Paul, lory. Since the heroic sentiment is the the sudden renewal of the conscience, cause of the other sentiments, it is to the faith in invisible things, the transthis the bistorian must devote himself. formation of a soul penetrated by the Since it is the source of civilization, presence of a paternal God, the irrupthe mover of revolutions, the master tion of tenderness, generosity, abnega. and regenerator of human life, it is in tion, trust, and hope, which rescued the this wat he must observe civilization, wretches oppressed under the Roman revolutions, and human life. Since it tyranny and decline. To explain a is the spring of every movement, it is revolution, is to write a partial pisyby this that we shall understand every chology; the analysis of critics and the

Lectures on Heroes, i. ; The Hero as Di divination of artists are the only in pinity.

struments which can attain to it: if wo + Ibid. v. ; The Hero as Priest.

would have it precise and profound, we

a

a

must ask it of those who, through the historian does not obtru it himself their profession or their genius, possess between me and his subject I see a a knowledge of the soul-Shakspeare, fact, and not an account of a fact ; the Saint-Simon, Balzac, Stendhal. This oratorical and personal envelope, with is why we may occasionally ask it of which a narrative covers the truth, Carlyle. And there is a history which disappears; I can touch the truth itself. we may ask of him in preference to all And this Cromwell, with the Puritans, others, that of the Revolution which comes forth from the test, recreated had conscience for its source, which and renewed. We divined pretty well set God in the councils of the state, already that he was not a mere man which imposed strict duty, which pro- of ambition, a hypocrite, but we took voked severe heroism. The best his- him for a fanatic and hateful dispů. torian of Puritanism is a Puritan

tant. We considered these Puritans as

gloomy madmen, shallow brains, and IV.

full of scruples. Let us quit oui The history of Cromwell, Carlyle's French and modern ideas, and enter masterpiece, is but a collection of let into these souls : we sha: find there ters and speeches, commented on and something else than hypochondria, united by a continuous narrative. The namely, a grand sentiment-am I a just impression which they leave is extraor- man?' And if God, who is perfect dinary. Grave constitutional histories justice, were to judge me at this mohang heavy after this compilation. The ment, what sentence would he pass author wished to make us comprehend upon me ?-Such is the original idea of a soul, the soul of Cromwell, the great the Puritans, and through them came est of the Puritans, their chief, their the Revolution into England. The abstract, their hero, and their model. feeling of the difference there is be. His narrative resembles that of an eye- tween good and evil, filled for them all witness. A covenanter who should time and space, and became incarnate, have collected letters, scraps of news- and expressed for them, by such words papers, and daily added reflections, as Heaven and Hell. They were struck interpretations, notes, and anecdotes, by the idea of duty. They examined might have written just such a book. themselves by this light, severely and At last we are face to face with Crom- without intermission ; they conceived well. We have his words, we can hear the sublime model of infallible and comhis tone of voice ; we seize, around plete virtue ; they were imbued there. each action, the circumstances which with ; they drowned in this absorbing produced it : we see him in his tent, in thought all worldly prejudices and ali council, with the proper background, inclinations of the senses; they conwith his face and costume : every detail, ceived a horror even of imperceptible the most minute, is here. And the faults, which an honest mind will excuse sincerity is as great as the sympathy ; in itself; they exacted from themselves the biographer confesses his ignorance, absolute and continuous perfection, and the lack of documents, the uncertainty ; they entered into life with a fixed re. he is perfectly loyal though a poet and solve to suffer and do all, rather than a sectarian. With him we simultaneous- deviate one step. We laugh at a revolu. ly restrain and give free play to our tion about surplices and chasubles ; injectures; and we feel at every step, there was a sentiment of the divine azaidst our affirmations and our reser- underneath all these disputes about vations, that we are firmly planting our vestments. These poor folk, shop: feet upon the truth. Would that all keepers and farmers, believed, with all history were like this, a selection of their heart, in a sub'ime and terrible texts provided with a commentary! I God, and the manne how to worship would exchange for such a history all Him was not a trilling thing for them the regular arguments, all the beautiful

Suppose now it were some matter of vital colorless narrations, of Robertson and concernment, some transcendent matter (as Hume. I can verify the judgment of Divine worship is), about which your whole the author whilst reading this ; I no knew not how to form itself into utterance ai

soul, struck dumb with its excess of feeling, more think after him, but for myself ; 1 all, and preferred formless silence to any utter

self!

nate

ance there possible,--what should we say of a, energy. They founded England, in man coming forward to represent or utte it for spite of the corruption of tne Stuarts you in the way of upholsterer-mummery ? Such a man, let him depart swiftly, if he love him- and the relaxation of modern manners,

You have lost your only son ; are mute, by the exercise of duty, by the practice struck down, without even tears: an importu- of justice, by obstinate toil, by vindicaFuneral Games for him in the manner of the tion of right, by resistance to oppresGreeks." *

sion, by the conquest of liberty, by the

repression of vice. They founded This has caused the Revolution, and Scotland, they founded the United not the Writ of Shipmoney, or any States : at this day they are, by their other political vexation. “ You may descendants, founding Australia and take my purse, but the Self is colonizing the world. Carlyle is so nine and God my Maker's." | And the much their brother, that he excuses or same sentiment which made them rebels admires their excesses—the execution made them conquerors. Men could of the king, the mutilation of Parlianot inderstand how discipline could

ment, their intolerance, inquisition, the exist in an army in which an inspired despotism of Cromwell

, the theocracy corporal would reproach a lukewarm of Knox. He sets them before us as general. They thought it strange that models, and judges both past and presgenerals, who sought the Lord with ent by them alone. tears, had learned administration and strategy in the Bible. They wondered

V. that madmen could be men of business. The truth is, that they were not mad

Hence he saw nothing but evil in the men, but men of business. The whole French Revolution. Ảe judges it as difference between them and practical unjustly as he judges Voltaire, and for men whom we know, is that they had a the same reasons. He understands our conscience ; this conscience was their manner of acting no better than our fame; mysticism and dreams were but

manner of thinking. He looks for the smoke. They sought the true, the Puritan sentiment; and, as he does not just ; and their long prayers, their nasal find it, he condemns us. The idea of preachings, their quotations from the duty, the religious spirit, self-governBible, their tears, their anguish, only ment, the authority of an austere conmark the sincerity and ardor with which science, can alone, in his opinion, rethey applied themselves to the search form a corrupt society; and none of They read their duty in themselves; all these are to be met 'with in French the Bible only aided them. At need society. The philosophy which has they did violence to it, when they wish produced and guided the Revolution ed to verify by texts the suggestions of was simply destructive, praclaiming no their own hearts. It was this sentiment other gospel but “that a lie cannot be of duty which united, inspired, and sus- believed i Philosophy knows only this: tained them, which made their discip- Her other relief is mainly that in spiritline, courage, and boldness;, which ual, supra-sensual matters, no belief is raised to ancient heroism Hutchinson, possible.” The theory of the Rights Milton, and Cromwell ; which instiga- of Man, borrowed from Rousseau, is ted all decisive deeds, grand resolves, only a logical game,

a pedantry almost marvellous successes, the declaration as opportune as a “Theory of Irregular of war, the trial of the king, the purge Verbs.” The manners in vogue were of Parliament, the humiliation of Eu- the epicurism of Faublas. The moralrope, the protection of Protestantism, ity in vogue was the promise of univer. the sway of the seas. These men are sal happiness. Incredulity, hollow rant, the true heroes of England; they dis- sensuality, were the mainsprings of this play, in high relief, the original charac- reformation. Men let loose their interistics and noblest features of Engostincts and overturned the barriers land-practical piety, the rule of con. They replaced corrupt authority, by science, manly resolution, indomitable unchecked anarchy. In what could á • Lectures on Heroes, vi.; The Hero as jacquerie of brutalized peasants impel.

led by atheistical arguments, end?

;

a

“For ourselves, we answer that French Revo | Revolution, revolts him against mod olution means here the open violent Rebellion, and Victory, of disimprisoned Anarchy against

ern England: corrupt, worn-out Authority.

“ We have forgotten God ;- in the most “ So thousandfold complex a Society ready modern dialect and very truth of the matter, we to burst

up from its infinite depths; and these have taken ap the Fact of this Universe as it is men its rulers and healers, without life-rule for

not. We have quietly closed our eyes to the themselves-other life-rule than a Gospel ac- eternal Substance of things, and opened them cording to Jean Jacques! To the wisest of only to the Shows and Shams of things.. We them, what we must call the wisest, man is prop- quietly believe this Universe to be intrinsically erly an accident under the sky. Man is with

a great unintelligible PERHAPS ; extrinsically. out duty round him, except it be to make the clear enough, it is a great, most extensive CattieConstitution. He is without Heaven above

fold and Workhouse, with most extensive aim, or Hell beneath him ; he has no God in

Kitchen-ranges, Dining-tables - whereat he is He world.

wise who can find a place ! All the Truth of While hollow languor and vacuity is the lot

this Universe is unceriai: ; .': the profit and pt the upper, and want and stagnation of the lower, and universal misery is very certain, remain very visible to the practical man.

loss of it, the pudding and praise of it, are and what other thing is certain ?... What will reniain? The five unsatiated senses will remain, Laws are become a Greatest-Happiness Prin

“ There is no longer any God for us! God's the sixth insatiable sense (of vanity); the whole ciple, a Parliamentary Expediency; the Headamoniac nature of man will remain.

vens overarch us only as an Astronomical Time “Man is not what we call a happy animal ; keeper ; a butt for Herschel-telescopes to shoot his appetite for sweet victual is too enormous. science at, to shoot sentimentalities at : in our

(He cannot subsist) except by girding and old Jonson's dialect, man has lost the soul himself together for continual endeavour and out of hím; and now, after the due period, endurance." +

begins to find the want of it! This is verily the But set the good beside the evil ; nut plague-spot; centre of the

universal Social Gandown virtues beside vices! These | frightful death. To him that will consider it,

grene. Ehreatening all modern things with skeptics believed in demonstrated truth, here is the stem, with its roots and taproot, with and would have her alone for mistress: | its world-wide upas-boughs and accursed poisonThese logicians founded society only in atrophy and agony. You touch the focal.

exudations, under which the world lies writhing on justice, and risked their lives rather centre of all our disease, of our frightful nosolthan renounce an established theorem. ogy of diseases, when you lay your hand on These epicureans embraced in their this. There is no religion: there is no God; sympathies entire humanity. These

man has lost his soul, and vainly seeks antisep

tic salt. Vainly: in killing Kings, in passing furious men, these workmen, these Reform bills, in French Revolutions, Mancheshungry, threadbare peasants, fought on ter Insurrections, is found no remedy. The the frontiers for humanitarian interests foul elephantine leprosy, alleviated for an hour, and abstract principles. Generosity hour.".

reappears in new force and desperateness next and enthusiasm abounded in France, as well as in England; acknowledge Since the return of the Stuarts, we are them under a form which is not English.

utilitarians or skeptics. We believe These men were devoted to abstract only in observation, statistics, gross truth, as the Puritan to divine truth; and concrete truths; or else we doubt, they followed philosophy, as the Puri- half believe, on hearsay, with reserve. tans followed religion; they had for We have no moral convictions, and we their aim universal salvation, as the have only floating convictions. We Puritans had individual salvation. have lost the mainspring of action ; we They fought against evil in society, as

no longer set duty in the midst of our the Puritans fought it in the soul. They resolve, as the sole and undisturbed were generous, as the Puritans were foundation of life; we are caught by all virtuous. They had, like them, a hero kinds of little experimental and positive ism, but sympathetic, sociable, ready receipts, and we amuse ourselves with to proselytize, which reformed Europe, all kinds of pretty pleasures, well

We are egotists whilst the English only served Eng. chosen and arranged.

or dilettanti. We no longer look on

life as an august temple, but as a maVI.

chine for solid profits, ir as a hall for This exaggerated Puritanism, which refined amusements. We have our revolted Carlyle against the French rich men, our manufaci arers, our bank

• The French Revolution, 1. dk. vi. ch. i. ; * Past and Present, bk, üü. ch. i ; Pho Make the Constitution. Ibid.

land. 1