erson's Essays,[B] to which he prefixed a
characteristic Preface of some length.

[Footnote B: Essays: by R.W. Emerson, of Concord, Massachusetts. With
Preface by Thomas Carlyle. London: James Fraser, 1841.]

"The name of Ralph Waldo Emerson," he writes, "is not entirely new
in England: distinguished travellers bring us tidings of such a man;
fractions of his writings have found their way into the hands of
the curious here; fitful hints that there is, in New England, some
spiritual notability called Emerson, glide through Reviews and
Magazines. Whether these hints were true or not true, readers are now
to judge for themselves a little better.

"Emerson's writings and speakings amount to something: and yet
hitherto, as seems to me, this Emerson is perhaps far less notable for
what he has spoken or done, than for the many things he has not spoken
and has forborne to do. With uncommon interest I have learned that
this, and in such a never-resting, locomotive country too, is one of
those rare men who have withal the invaluable talent of sitting still!
That an educated man, of good gifts and opportunities, after looking
at the public arena, and even trying, not with ill success, what its
tasks and its prizes might amount to, should retire for long years
into rustic obscurity; and, amid the all-pervading jingle of dollars
and loud chaffering of ambitions and promotions, should quietly,
with cheerful deliberateness, sit down to spend _his_ life not in
Mammon-worship, or the hunt for reputation, influence, place, or any
outward advantage whatsoever: this, when we get a notice of it, is a
thing really worth noting."

In 1843, "Past and Present" appeared--a work without the wild power
which "Sartor Resartus" possessed over the feelings of the reader,
but containing passages which look the same way, and breathe the
same spirit. The book contrasts, in a historico-philosophical spirit,
English society in the Middle Ages, with English society in our own
day. In both this and the preceding work the great measures advised
for the amelioration of the people are education and emigration.

Another very admirable letter, addressed by Mr. Carlyle in 1843 to a
young man who had written to him desiring his advice as to a proper
choice of reading, and, it would appear also, as to his conduct in
general, we shall here bring forth from its hiding-place in an old
Scottish newspaper of a quarter of a century ago:--

"DEAR SIR,

"Some time