and cant had, of course, particular applications, though he left them to
be inferred by his readers. Carlyle was the exponent of many of the
deepest convictions of his time. Nobody could be more in sympathy with
aspirations for a spiritual religion and for a lofty idealism in
political and social life. To most minds, however, which cherish such
aspirations the gentler optimism of men like Emerson was more congenial.
They believed in the progress of the race and the triumph of the nobler
elements. Though Carlyle, especially in his earlier years, could deliver
an invigorating and encouraging, if not a sanguine doctrine, his
utterances were more generally couched in the key of denunciation, and
betrayed a growing despondency. Materialism and low moral principles
seemed to him to be gaining the upper hand; and the hope that religion
might survive the "old clothes" in which it had been draped seemed to
grow fainter. The ordinary mind complained that he had no specific
remedy to propose for the growing evils of the time; and the more
cultivated idealist was alienated by the gloom and the tendency to
despair. To a later generation it will probably appear that, whatever
the exaggerations and the misconceptions to which he was led, his
vehement attacks at least called attention to rather grave limitations
and defects in the current beliefs and social tendencies of the time.
The mannerisms and grotesque exaggerations of his writings annoyed
persons of refinement, and suggest Matthew Arnold's advice to flee
"Carlylese" as you would flee the devil. Yet the shrewd common-sense,
the biting humour, the power of graphic description and the imaginative
"mysticism" give them a unique attraction for many even who do not fully
sympathize with the implied philosophy or with the Puritanical code of
ethics. The letters and autobiographical writings, whether they attract
or repel sympathy, are at least a series of documents of profound
interest for any one who cares to study character, and display an almost
unique idiosyncrasy. (L. S.)

The chief authorities for Carlyle's life are his own _Reminiscences_,
the _Letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle_, the _Love Letters of Thomas
Carlyle and Jane Welsh_ (ed. A. Carlyle), and the four volumes of J.A.
Froude's biography; Froude was Carlyle's literary executor. Prof. C.E.
Norton's edition of the _Reminiscences_ and his collection of
Carlyle's _Early Letters_ correct some of Froude's inaccura