inburgh: published by Oliver and Boyd; and G. and W.B.
Whittaker, London. 1824, pp. xvi., 367. Sir David Brewster's
Preface, in which he speaks of "an Introduction on Proportion, by the
Translator," is dated _Edinburgh, August_ 1, 1822.]

"I was already," says Carlyle in his _Reminiscences_, "getting my head
a little up, translating 'Legendre's Geometry' for Brewster. I still
remember a happy forenoon in which I did a _Fifth Book_ (or complete
'doctrine of proportion') for that work, complete really and lucid,
and yet one of the briefest ever known. It was begun and done that
forenoon, and I have (except correcting the press next week) never
seen it since; but still I feel as if it were right enough and
felicitous in its kind! I only got L50 for my entire trouble in that
'Legendre;' but it was an honest job of work, honestly done."[A]

[Footnote A: _Reminiscences by Thomas Carlyle_, Edited by James
Anthony Froude. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1881, Vol. 1., pp.
198-199.]

The late Professor de Morgan--an excellent authority--pronounced a
high eulogium upon this Essay on Proportion.

In 1822 Carlyle accepted the post of tutor to Charles Buller, of whose
early death and honourable promise, two touching records remain to us,
one in verse by Thackeray, and one in prose by Carlyle.

For the next four years Carlyle devoted his attention almost
exclusively to German literature.

His Life of Schiller first appeared under the title of "Schiller's
Life and Writings," in the London Magazine.

Part I.--October, 1823.
Part II.--January, 1824.
Part III.--July, 1824.
" August, 1824.
" September, 1824.

It was enlarged, and separately published by Messrs. Taylor and
Hessey, the proprietors of the Magazine, in 1825.

The translation of "Wilhelm Meister," in 1824,[A] was the first real
introduction of Goethe to the reading world of Great Britain. It
appeared without the name of the translator, but its merits were too
palpable to be overlooked, though some critics objected to the strong
infusion of German phraseology which had been imported into the
English version. This acquired idiom never left our author, even in
his original works, although the "Life of Schiller," written but a few
months before, is almost entirely free from the peculiarity. "Wilhelm
Meister," in its English dress, was better received by the English
reading public than by English critics. De Quincey, in one of his
dyspe