Kirkcaldy he crossed to Edinburgh
and called on Jeffrey. 'He sat,' says Carlyle, 'waiting for me at Moray
Place. We talked long in the style of literary and philosophic
clitter-clatter. Finally it was settled that I should go out to dinner
with him at Craigcrook, and not return to Fife till the morrow.' They
dined and abstained from contradicting each other, Carlyle admitting
that Jeffrey was becoming an amiable old fribble, 'very cheerful, very
heartless, very forgettable and tolerable.'

On his return to London, equal to work again, Carlyle found all well. He
was gratified to hear that the eighth edition of the _French
Revolution_ was almost sold, and that another would be called for, while
there were numerous applications from review editors for articles if he
would please to supply them. Mill about this time asked him to
contribute a paper on Cromwell to the _London and Westminster Review_.
Carlyle agreed, and was preparing to begin when the negotiations were
broken off. Mill had gone abroad, leaving a Mr Robertson to manage the
_Review_. Robertson coolly wrote to say that he need not go on with the
article, 'for he meant to do Cromwell himself.' Carlyle was wroth, and
that incident determined him to 'throw himself seriously into the
history of the Commonwealth, and to expose himself no more to cavalier
treatment from "able editors."' But for that task he required books.
Then it was that the idea of founding a London library occurred to him.
Men of position took up the matter warmly, and Carlyle's object was
accomplished. 'Let the tens of thousands,' says Mr Froude, 'who, it is
to be hoped, "are made better and wiser" by the books collected there,
remember that they owe the privilege entirely to Carlyle.'

One of Carlyle's new acquaintances was Monckton Milnes, who asked him to
breakfast. Carlyle used to say that if Christ were again on earth Milnes
would ask Him to breakfast, and the clubs would all be talking of the
'good things' that Christ had said. He also became familiar with Mr
Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton, and his accomplished wife, who in
course of time exercised a disturbing influence over the Carlyle
household. It would not tend to edification to dwell upon the domestic
misunderstandings at Cheyne Row; besides, are not they to be found
detailed at great length in Froude's _Life_, the _Reminiscences_, and
_Letters and Memorials_? Although Carlyle was taking life somewhat easy,
he was making preparat