in him and his
proceedings, has decided to have a new war for the Turk against all
mankind; and this letter hopes to drive a nail through his mad and
maddest speculations on that side.'

Froude tells us that Carlyle continued to read the Bible, 'the
significance of which' he found 'deep and wonderful almost as much as it
ever used to be.' The Bible and Shakespeare remained 'the best books' to
him that were ever written.

The death of his brother John was a severe shock to Carlyle, for they
were deeply attached to each other. When he bequeathed Craigenputtock to
the University of Edinburgh, John Carlyle settled a handsome sum for
medical bursaries there, to encourage poor students. 'These two
brothers,' Froude remarks, 'born in a peasant's home in Annandale,
owing little themselves to an Alma Mater which had missed discovering
their merits, were doing for Scotland's chief University what Scotland's
peers and merchants, with their palaces and deer forests and social
splendour, had, for some cause, too imperfectly supplied.'

In the autumn of 1880, Carlyle became very infirm; in January he was
visibly sinking; and on the 5th of February 1881, he passed away in his
eighty-fifth year. In accordance with his expressed wishes, they buried
him in the old kirkyard of Ecclefechan with his own people.

At his death Carlyle's fame was at its zenith. A revulsion of feeling
was caused by the publication of Froude's _Life of Carlyle_ and the
_Reminiscences_. In regard to the former, great dissatisfaction was
created by the somewhat unflattering portrait painted by Froude. Was
Froude justified in presenting to the public Carlyle in all grim
realism? The answer to this depends upon one's notions of literary
ethics. The view of the average biographer is that he must suppress
faults and give prominence to virtues. The result is that the majority
of biographies are simply expanded funeral sermons; instead of a
life-like portrait we have a glorified mummy. Boswell's _Johnson_ stands
at the head of biographies; but, if Boswell had followed the
conventional method, his book would long since have passed into
obscurity. It is open to dispute whether Froude has not overdone the
sombre elements in Carlyle's life. Readers of Professor Masson's little
book, which shows Carlyle in a more genially human mood, have good
reason to suspect that Froude has given too much emphasis to the
Rembrandtesque element in Carlyle's life. In the main, however,