er air from the moorlands of Galloway, to
the dwellers in London drawing-rooms, and 'they were not a little
astonished when the wild Annandale voice grew high and earnest.'"

From this first venture which was so successful--he cleared one
hundred and thirty-five guineas after all the expenses had been
paid--Carlyle was induced to give other series in the next few years.
One of the most popular books by Carlyle is _Heroes and Hero Worship_;
this first was given in a course of lectures. When "The Hero as Man of
Letters" was given, Caroline Fox, an ardent admirer of the Scot, was
in attendance. She has left a vivid description of the man: "Carlyle
soon appeared, and looked as if he felt a well-dressed London audience
scarcely the arena for him to figure in as a popular lecturer. He is a
tall, robust-looking man; rugged simplicity and indomitable strength
are in his face, and such a glow of genius in it--not always
smoldering there, but flashing from his beautiful gray eyes, from the
remoteness of their deep setting under that massive brow. His manner
is very quiet, but he speaks as one tremendously convinced of what he
utters, and who had much, very much, in him that was quite
unutterable, quite unfit to be uttered to the uninitiated ear; and
when the Englishman's sense of beauty or truth exhibited itself in
vociferous cheers, he would impatiently, almost contemptuously, wave
his hand, as if that were not the kind of homage which truth demanded.
He began in a rather low and nervous voice, with a broad Scotch
accent, but it soon grew firm, and shrank not abashed from its great
task."

XXXVII

CARLYLE ON WORDSWORTH AND BROWNING

On our first day's journey, wrote Mr. Duffy in the _Contemporary
Review_, the casual mention of Edmund Burke induced me to ask Carlyle
who was the best talker he had met among notable people in London.

He said that when he met Wordsworth first he had been assured that he
talked better than any man in England. It was his habit to talk
whatever was in his mind at the time, with total indifference to the
impression it produced on his hearers. On this occasion he kept
discoursing how far you could get carried out of London on this side
and on that for sixpence. One was disappointed,--perhaps,--but, after
all, this was the only healthy way of talking, to say what is actually
in your mind, and let sane creatures who listen to make what they can
of it. Whether they understood or not, Wordswor