nd
only, as before that it is still too much of a soul for
circulating as it should. I wish you could in future contrive to
mark at the end of each Article who writes it, or give me some
general key for knowing. I recognize Emerson readily; the rest
are of [Greek] for most part. But it is all good and very good
as a _soul;_ wants only a body, which want means a great deal!
Your Paper on Literature is incomparably the worthiest thing
hitherto; a thing I read with delight. Speak out, my brave
Emerson; there are many good men that listen! Even what you
say of Goethe gratifies me; it is one of the few things yet
spoken of him from personal insight, the sole kind of things that
should be spoken! You call him _actual,_ not _ideal;_ there is
truth in that too; and yet at bottom is not the whole truth
rather this: The actual well-seen _is_ the ideal? The _actual,_
what really is and exists: the past, the present, the future no
less, do all lie there! Ah yes! one day you will find that this
sunny-looking, courtly Goethe held veiled in him a Prophetic
sorrow deep as Dante's,--all the nobler to me and to you, that he
_could_ so hold it. I believe this; no man can _see_ as he
sees, that has not suffered and striven as man seldom did.--
Apropos of _this,_ Have you got Miss Martineau's _Hour and Man?_
How curious it were to have the real History of the Negro
Toussaint, and his _black_ Sansculottism in Saint Domingo,--the
most atrocious form Sansculottism could or can assume! This of a
"black Wilberforce-Washington," as Sterling calls it, is
decidedly something. Adieu, dear Emerson: time presses, paper
is done. Commend me to your good wife, your good Mother, and
love me as well as you can. Peace and health under clear winter
skies be with you all.

--T. Carlyle

My Wife rebukes me sharply that I have "forgot her love." She is
much better this winter than of old.

Having mentioned Sterling I should say that he is at Torquay
(Devonshire) for the winter, meditating new publication of Poems.
I work still in Cromwellism; all but desperate of any feasible
issue worth naming. I "enjoy bad health" too, considerably!

LX. Carlyle to Mrs. Emerson

Chelsea, London, 21 February, 1841

Dear Mrs. Emerson,--Your Husband's Letter shall have answer when
some moment of leisure is granted me; he will wait till then,
and must. But the beautiful utterance which you send over to m