removed permanently to the
metropolis. But he was scarcely less buried at his modest house in
Chelsea than he had been on his farm, for he came to London with only
L200, and was obliged to practise the most rigid economy. For two years
he labored in his London workshop without earning a shilling, and with
a limited acquaintance. Not yet was his society sought by the great
world which he mocked and despised. He fortunately had the genial and
agreeable Leigh Hunt for a neighbor, and Edward Irving for his friend.
He was known to the critics by his writings, but his circle of personal
friends was small. He was more or less intimate with John Stuart Mill,
Charles Austin, Sir William Molesworth, and the advanced section of the
philosophical radicals,--the very class of men from whom he afterwards
was most estranged. None of these men forwarded his fortunes; but they
lent him books, and helped him at the libraries, for no carpenter can
work without tools.

The work to which Carlyle now devoted himself was a history of the
French Revolution, the principal characters of which he had already
studied and written about. It was a subject adapted to his genius for
dramatic writing, and for the presentation of his views as to
retribution. His whole theology, according to Froude, was underlaid by
the belief in punishment for sin, which was impressed upon his mind by
his God-fearing parents, and was one of his firmest convictions. The
French were to his mind the greatest sinners among Christian nations,
and therefore were to reap a fearful penalty. To paint in a new and
impressive form the inevitable calamities attendant on violated law and
justice, was the aspiration of Carlyle. He had money enough to last him
with economy for two years. In this time he hoped to complete his work.
The possibility was due to the intelligent thrift of his wife.
Commenting on one of her letters describing their snug little house,
he writes:--

"From birth upwards she had lived in opulence; and now, for my sake, had
become poor,--so nobly poor. Truly, her pretty little brag [in this
letter] was well founded. No such house, for beautiful thrift, quiet,
spontaneous, nay, as it were, unconscious--minimum of money reconciled
to human comfort and human dignity--have I anywhere looked upon."

He devoted himself to his task with intense interest, and was completely
preoccupied.

In the winter of 1835, after a year of general study, collection of
material an