ef that
to achieve any real progress, something is required infinitely deeper
than any mere change in the superficial arrangements of society. These
lessons are expressed, too, as the merely literary critic must admit,
by a series of historical pictures, so vivid and so unique in
character that for many readers they are in the full sense
fascinating. They are revelations of new aspects of the world, never,
when once observed, to be forgotten. And finally, I may add that
Carlyle's autobiographical writings--in which we must include the
delightful 'Life of Sterling'--show the same qualities in a shape
which, if sometimes saddening, is profoundly interesting. No man was
more reticent in his life, though he has been made to deliver a
posthumous confession of extraordinary fullness. We hear all the
groans once kept within the walls of Cheyne Row. After making all
allowance for the fits of temper, the harshness of judgment, and the
willful exaggeration, we see at last a man who under extraordinary
difficulties was unflinchingly faithful to what he took to be his
vocation, and struggled through a long life, full of anxieties and
vexations, to turn his genius to the best account.

[Signature: Leslie Stephen]

LABOR

From 'Past and Present'

For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in Work. Were
he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always
hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in Idleness alone is
there perpetual despair. Work, never so Mammonish, mean, _is_ in
communication with Nature; the real desire to get Work done will
itself lead one more and more to truth, to Nature's appointments and
regulations, which are truth.

The latest Gospel in this world is, Know thy work and do it. "Know
thyself": long enough has that poor "self" of thine tormented thee;
thou wilt never get to "know" it, I believe! Think it not thy
business, this of knowing thyself; thou art an unknowable individual:
know what thou canst work at; and work at it like a Hercules! That
will be thy better plan.

It has been written, "An endless significance lies in Work;" a man
perfects himself by working. Foul jungles are cleared away, fair
seed-fields rise instead, and stately cities; and withal the man
himself first ceases to be jungle and foul unwholesome desert thereby.
Consider how even in the meanest sorts of Labor, the whole soul of
a man is composed