all can wage so equal a
fight with fears and sorrows; but it shows at least that an indomitable
resolution can make a noble thing out of a life from which every
circumstance of romance and dignity seems to be purposely withdrawn.

I do not think that there is in literature a more inspiring and
heartening book than Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte. The book
was written with a fine frankness and a daring indiscretion which cost
Mrs. Gaskell very dear. It remains as one of the most matchless and
splendid presentments of duty and passion and genius, waging a
perfectly undaunted fight with life and temperament, and carrying off
the spoils not only of undying fame, but the far more supreme crown of
moral force. Charlotte Bronte never doubted that she had been set in
the forefront of the battle, and that her first concern was with the
issues of life and sorrow and death. She died at thirty-eight, at a
time when many men and women have hardly got a firm hold of life at
all, or have parted with weak illusions. Yet years before she had said
sternly to a friend who was meditating a flight from hard conditions of
life: "The right course is that which necessitates the greatest
sacrifice of self-interest." Many people could have said that, but I
know no figure who more relentlessly and loyally carried out the
principle than Charlotte Bronte, or who waged a more vigorous and
tenacious battle with every onset of fear. "My conscience tells me,"
she once wrote about an anxious decision, "that it would be the act of
a moral poltroon to let the fear of suffering stand in the way of
improvement. But suffer I shall. No matter!"

XIV

JOHN STERLING

I believe that the most affecting, beautiful, and grave message ever
written from a death-bed is John Sterling's last letter to Carlyle. It
reflects, perhaps, something of Carlyle's own fine manner, but then
Sterling had long been Carlyle's friend and confidant.

Before I give it, let me add a brief account of Sterling. He was some
ten years Carlyle's junior, the son of the redoubtable Edward Sterling,
the leader-writer of the Times, a man who in his day wielded a mighty
influence. Carlyle describes the father's way of life, how he spent the
day in going about London, rolling into clubs, volubly questioning and
talking; then returned home in the evening, and condensed it all into a
leader, "and is found," said Carlyle, "to have hit the essential
purport of the world's immeasur