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The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, written by Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson

T >> Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson >> The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson,



1834-1872

VOLUME I.


"To my friend I write a letter, and from him I receive a letter.
It is a spiritual gift, worthy of him to give, and of me to
receive."--Emerson

"What the writer did actually mean, the thing he then thought of,
the thing he then was."--Carlyle



EDITORIAL NOTE

The trust of editing the following Correspondence, committed to
me several years since by the writers, has been of easy
fulfilment. The whole Correspondence, so far as it is known to
exist, is here printed, with the exception of a few notes of
introduction, and one or two essentially duplicate letters. I
cannot but hope that some of the letters now missing may
hereafter come to light.

In printing, a dash has been substituted here and there for a
proper name, and some passages, mostly relating to details of
business transactions, have been omitted. These omissions are
distinctly designated. The punctuation and orthography of the
original letters have been in the main exactly followed. I have
thought best to print much concerning dealings with publishers,
as illustrative of the material conditions of literature during
the middle of the century, as well as of the relations of the
two friends. The notes in the two volumes are mine.

My best thanks and those of the readers of this Correspondence
are due to Mr. Moncure D. Conway, for his energetic and
successful effort to recover some of Emerson's early letters
which had fallen into strange hands.
--Charles Eliot Norton

Cambridge, Massachusetts
January 29, 1883

---------


NOTE TO REVISED EDITION

The hope that some of the letters missing from it when this
correspondence was first published might come to light, has been
fulfilled by the recovery of thirteen letters of Carlyle, and of
four of Emerson. Besides these, the rough drafts of one or two
of Emerson's letters, of which the copies sent have gone astray,
have been found. Comparatively few gaps in the Correspondence
remain to be filled.

The letters and drafts of letters now first printed are those
numbered as follows:--

Vol. I.
XXXVI. Carlyle
XLI. Emerson
XLII. Carlyle
XLVI. "
XLVII. "
LXVIII. "

Vol. II.
C. Emerson
CIV. Carlyle
CV. "
CVI. "
CVII. "
CVIII. "
CIX. "
CXII. "
CXVI. "
CXLIX. Emerson
CLII. "
CLXV. "
CLXXXVI. "

Emerson's letter of 1 May, 1859 (CLXIV.), of which only fragments
were printed in the former edition, is now printed complete, and
the extract from his Diary accompanying it appears in the form in
which it seems to have been sent to Carlyle.

--C.E.N.

December 31, 1884

-----------


CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.

Introduction. Emerson's early recognition of Carlyle's genius.
--His visit at Craigenputtock, in 1833.--Extracts concerning it
from letter of Carlyle, from letter of Emerson, and from English
Traits.

I. Emerson. Boston, 14 May, 1834. First acquaintance with
Carlyle's writings.--Visit to Craigenputtock.--_Sartor Resartus,_
its contents, its diction.--Gift of Webster's _Speeches_ and
Sampson Reed's _Growth of the Mind._

II. Carlyle. Chelsea, 12 August, 1834. Significance of
Emerson's gift and visit.--Sampson Reed.--Webster.--
Teufelsdrockh, its sorry reception.--Removal to London.--Article
on the Diamond Necklace.--Preparation for book on the French
Revolution.--Death of Coleridge.

III. Emerson. Concord, 20 November, 1834. Death of his brother
Edward.--Consolation in Carlyle's friendship.--Pleasure in
receiving stitched copy of Teufelsdrockh.--Goethe.--
Swedenborgianism.--Of himself.--Hope of Carlyle's coming to
America.--Gift of various publications.

IV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 3 February, 1835. Acknowledgments and
inquiries.--Sympathy for death of Edward Emerson.--Unitarianism.
--Emerson's position and pursuits.--Goethe.-Volume of French
Revolution finished.--Condition of literature.--Lecturing in
America.--Mrs. Austin.

V. Emerson. Concord, 12 March, 1835. Appreciation of Sartor.
--Dr. Channing.--Prospect of Carlyle's visit to America.--His
own approaching marriage.--Plan of a journal of Philosophy in
Boston.--Encouragement of Carlyle.

VI. Emerson. Concord, 30 April, 1835. Apathy of English public
toward Carlyle.--Hope of his visit to America.--Lectures and
lecturers in Boston.--Estimate of receipts and expenses.--Esteem
of Carlyle in America.

VII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 May, 1835. Emerson's marriage.
--Astonishing reception of Teufelsdrockh in New England.
--Boston Transcendentalism.--Destruction of manuscript of
first volume of _French Revolution._--Result of a year's
life in London.--Wordsworth.--Southey.

VIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 27 June, 1835. Visit to America
questionable.--John Carlyle.--Tired out with rewriting _French
Revolution._--A London rout.--O'Connell.--Longfellow.--Emerson
and Unitarianism.

IX. Emerson. Concord, 7 October, 1835. Mrs. Child.--Public
addresses.--Marriage.--Destruction of manuscript of _French
Revolution._--Notice of _Sartor_ in _North American Review._
--Politics.--Charles Emerson.

X. Emerson. Concord, 8 April, 1836. Concern at Carlyle's
silence.--American reprint of _Sartor._--Carlyle's projected
visit.--Lecturing in New England.

XI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 April, 1836. Weariness over _French
Revolution._--Visit to Scotland.--Charm of London.--Letter from
James Freeman Clarke.--Article on _Sartor_ in _North American
Review._--Quatrain from Voss.

XII. Emerson. Concord, 17 September,1836. Death of Charles
Emerson.--Solicitude concerning Carlyle.--Urgency to him to come
to Concord.--Sends _Nature_ to him.--Reflections.

XIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 5 November, 1836. Charles Emerson's
death.--Concord.--His own condition.--_French Revolution_ almost
ended.--Character of the book.--Weariness.--London and its
people.--Plans for rest.--John Sterling.--Articles on Mirabeau
and the _Diamond Necklace._--Mill's _London_ Review.--Thanks for
American Teufelsdrockh.--Mrs. Carlyle.--Might and Right, Canst
and Shalt.--Books about Goethe.

XIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 February, 1837. Teufelsdrockh in
America and England.--_Nature._--Miss Martineau on Emerson.
--Mammon.--Completion of _French Revolution._--Scheme of
Lecturing in London.--America fading into the background.

XV. Emerson. Concord, 31 March, 1837. Receipt of the Mirabeau
and Diamond Necklace.--Their substance and style.--Proof-sheet of
_French Revolution._--Society in America.--Renewed invitation.
--Mrs. Carlyle.--His son Waldo.--Bronson Alcott.--Second edition
of _Sartor._

XVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 1 June, 1837. Lectures on German
Literature.--Copy of _French Revolution_ sent.--Review of himself
in _Christian Examiner._--George Ripley.--Miss Martineau and her
book on America.--Plans.

XVII. Emerson. Concord, 13 September, 1837. _The French
Revolution._--Sale of Carlyle's books.--Lectures.

XVIII. Emerson. Concord, 2 November, 1837. Introduction given
to Charles Sumner.--Reprint of _French Revolution._--Lectures.

XIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 December, 1837. Visit to Scotland.
--Mrs. Carlyle's ill-health.--His own need of rest.--John
Sterling; his regard for Emerson.--Emerson's Oration on the
American Scholar.--Proposed collection of his own Miscellanies.

XX. Emerson. Concord, 9 February, 1838. Lectures on Human
Culture.--Carlyle's praise of his Oration.--John Sterling.
--Reprint of _French Revolution._--Profits from it.--American
selection and edition of Carlyle's _Miscellanies._

XXI. Emerson. Boston, 12 March, 1838. Sale of _French
Revolution._--Arrangements concerning American edition of
_Miscellanies._

XXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 16 March, 1838. Prospect of cash from
Yankee-land.--Poverty.--American and English reprints of
_Miscellanies._--Sterling's _Crystals from a Cavern._--Miss
Martineau on Emerson.--Lectures.--Plans.

XXIII. Emerson. Concord, 10 May, 1838. American edition of
_Miscellanies._--Invitation to Concord.--His means and mode of
life.--Sterling.--Miss Martineau.--Carlyle's poverty.

XXIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 15 June, 1838. American _French
Revolution._--London edition of Teufelsdrockh.--Miscellanies.
--Lectures, their money result.--Plans.--Emerson's Oration.
--Mrs. Child's _Philothea._

XXV. Emerson. Boston, 30 July, 1838. Encloses bill for L50.
--_Miscellanies_ published.

XXVI. Emerson. Concord, 6 August, 1838. Publication of
_Miscellanies._--Two more volumes proposed.--Orations at
Theological School, Cambridge, and at Dartmouth College.--Carlyle
desired in America.

XXVII. Carlyle. Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, 25 September, 1838.
Visit to his Mother.--Remittance from Emerson of L50.--
_Miscellanies_ again.--Another Course of Lectures.--Sterling.--
Miss Martineau.

XXVIII. Emerson. Concord, 17 October, 1838. Business.--Outcry
against address to Divinity College.--Injury to Carlyle's repute
in America from association with him.--Article in _Quarterly_ on
German Religious Writers.--Sterling.

XXIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 7 November, 1838. Emerson's letters.--
Dyspepsia.--Use of money from America.--Arrangements concerning
publication of _Miscellanies._--Emerson's Orations.--Tempest in a
washbowl concerning Divinity School Address.--John Carlyle--
Postscript by Mrs. Carlyle.

XXX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 15 November, 1838. Arrangements
concerning Miscellanies.--Employments, outlooks.--Concord not
forgotten, but Emerson to come first to England.--John Carlyle.
--Miss Martineau and her books.

XXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 December, 1838. Arrival of American
reprint of _Miscellanies._--English and American bookselling.--
Proposed second edition of _French Revolution._--Reading Horace
Walpole.--Sumner.--Dartmouth Oration.--Sterling.--Dwight's
German Translations.

XXXII. Emerson. Concord, 13 January, 1839. Business.--
Remittance of L100.--Lectures on Human Life.--Dr. Carlyle.

XXXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 February, 1839. Acknowledgment of
remittance.--Arrangements for new edition of _French
Revolution._--London.--Wish for quiet.--Ill-health.--Suggestion
of writing on Cromwell.--Mr. Joseph Coolidge.--Divinity School
Address.--Mrs. Carlyle.--Gladstone cites from Emerson in his
Church and State.

XXXIV. Emerson. Concord, 15 March, 1839. Account of sales.--
Second series of _Miscellanies._--Ill wind raised by Address
blown over.--Lectures.--Birth of daughter.--_The Onyx Ring._
--Alcott.

XXXV. Emerson. Concord, 19 March, 1839. Need of copy to fill
out second series of _Miscellanies._--John S. Dwight.

XXXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 13 April, 1839. Solicitude on account
of Emerson's silence.--Gift to Mrs. Emerson.--Book business.
--New edition of _French Revolution._--New lectures.--Better
circumstances, better health.--Arthur Buller urges a visit to
America.--Milnes.--Emerson's growing popularity.

XXXVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 April, 1839. Nothing in manuscript
fit for _Miscellanies._--Essay on Varnhagen.--Translation of
Goethe's _Mahrchen._--Cruthers and Jonson.--Dwight's book.
--Lectures.--Discontent among working people.

XXXVIII. Emerson. Boston, 20 April, 1839. Proposals of
publishers concerning _French Revolution._--Introduction of
Miss Sedgwick.

XXXIX. Emerson. Concord, 25 April, 1839. Account.--Sales
of books.

XL. Emerson. Concord, 28 April, 1839. Proposals of publishers
and accounts.

XLI. Emerson. Concord, 15 May, 1839. Arrangements with
publishers.--Matter for completion of fourth volume of
_Miscellanies._--Stearns Wheelers faithful labor.--Arthur
Buller's good witnessing.--Plans for Carlyle's visit to America.
--Milnes.--Copy of _Nature_ for him.

XLII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 29 May, 1839. Lectures happily over.--
Sansculottism.--Horse must be had.--Extempore speaking an art.--
Must lecture in America or write a book.--Wordsworth.--Sterling.
--Messages.

XLIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 24 June, 1839. Delay in arrival of
_Miscellanies._--Custom-house rapacities.--Accounts..--No longer
poor.--Emerson's work.--Miss Sedgwick.--Daniel Webster.--Proposed
visit to Scotland.--Sinking of the Vengeur.

XLIV. Emerson. Concord, 4 July, 1839. Proof-sheet of new
edition of _French Revolution_ received.--Gift to Mrs. Emerson of
engraving of Guido's Aurora.--Publishers' accounts.--Sterling.--
Occupations.--Margaret Fuller.

XLV. Emerson. Concord, 8 August, 1839. _Miscellanies_ sent.
--Daniel Webster.--Alcott.--Thoreau.

XLVI. Carlyle. Scotsbrig, Ecclefechan, 4 September, 1839.
Rusticating.--Arrival of _Miscellanies._--Errata.--Reprint of
_Wilhelm Meister._--Estimate of the book.--Copies of _French
Revolution_ sent.--Eager expectation of Emerson's book.--
Sterling.--Plans.

XLVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 December, 1839. Long silence.--Stay
in Scotland.--Chartism.--Reprint of _Miscellanies._--Stearns
Wheeler.--_Wilhelm Meister._--Boston steamers.--Speculations
about Hegira into New England.--Visitor from America who had
never seen Emerson.--Miss Martineau.--Silence and speech.--
Sterling.--Southey.--No longer desperately poor.

XLVIII. Emerson. Concord, 12 December, 1839. Copies of _French
Revolution_ arrived.--Lectures on the Present Age.--Letter from
Sterling, his paper on Carlyle.--Friends.

XLIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 6 January, 1840. _Chartism._--
Sterling.--Monckton Milnes, paper by him on Emerson.

L. Carlyle. Chelsea, 17 January, 1840. Export and import of
books.--New editions.--Books sent to Emerson.--Cromwell as a
subject for writing.--No appetite for lecturing.--Madame Necker
on Emerson.

LI. Emerson. New York, 18 March, 1840. New York.--Loss of faith
on entering cities.--Margaret Fuller to edit a journal.--Lectures
on the Present Age.--His children.--Renewed invitation.

LII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 1 April, 1840. Count D'Orsay, his
portrait of Carlyle.--Wages for books, due to Emerson.--Milnes's
review.--Heraud.--Landor.--Lectures in prospect on Heroes and
Hero-worship.

LIII. Emerson. Concord, 21 April, 1840. Introduction of Mr.
Grinnell.--Chartism.--Reprint of it.--At work on a book.--
Booksellers' accounts.--_The Dial._--Alcott.

LIV. Emerson. Concord, 30 June, 1840. _Wilhelm Meister_
received.--Landor.--Letter to Milnes.--Lithograph of Concord.
--_The Dial,_ No. 1.

LV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 2 July, 1840. Bibliopoliana.--Lectures
about Great Men.--Lecturing in America.--Milnes and his _Poems._
--Controversial volume from Ripley.

LVI. Emerson. Concord, 30 August, 1840. Booksellers' accounts.
--Faith cold concerning Carlyle's coming to America.--
Transcendentalism and _The Dial._--Social problems.--Character of
his writing.--Charles Sumner.

LVII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 26 September, 1840. Not to go to
America for the present.--_Heroes and Hero-Worship._--Journey on
horseback.--Reading on Cromwell.--_Dial_ No. 1.--Puseyism.--Dr.
Sewell on Carlyle.--Landor.--Sterling.

LVIII. Emerson. Concord, 30 October, 1840. Booksellers'
accounts.--Projects of social reform.--Studies unproductive.
--Hopes to print a book of essays.

LIX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 9 December, 1840. Booksellers'
carelessness and accounts.--Puseyism.--Dial No. 2.--Goethe.
--Miss Martineau's _Hour and Man._--Working in Cromwellism.

LX. Carlyle. Chelsea, 21 February, 1841. To Mrs. Emerson.--
London transmuted by her alchemy.--Hope of seeing Concord.
--Miss Martineau.--Toussaint l'Ouverture.--Sheets of _Heroes
and Hero-worship_ sent to Emerson.

LXI. Emerson. Concord, 28 February, 1841. Accounts.--Essays
soon to appear.--Lecture on Reform.

LXII. Emerson. Boston, 30 April, 1841. Remittance of L100.--
Accounts.--Piratical reprint of _Heroes and Hero-worship._--
_Dial_ No. 4.

LXIII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 8 May, 1841. Visit to Milnes.--To his
Mother.--Emerson's _Essays._--His own condition.

LXIV. Carlyle. Chelsea, 21 May, 1841. Acknowledgment of
remittance of L100.--Unauthorized American reprint of _Heroes and
Hero-worship._--Improvement in circumstances.--Desire for
solitude.--Article on Emerson in _Fraser's Magazine._

LXV. Emerson. Concord, 30 May, 1841. Accounts.--Book by Jones
Very.--_Heroes and Hero-worship._--Thoreau.

LXVI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 25 June, 1841. Proposed stay at Annan.
--Motives for it.--London reprint of Emerson's Essays.--Rio.

LXVII. Emerson. Concord, 31 July, 1841. London reprint of
_Essays._--Carlyle in his own land.--Writing an oration.

LXVIII. Carlyle. Newby, Annan, Scotland, 18 August, 1841.
Speedy receipt of letter.--Stay in Scotland.--Seclusion and
sadness.--Reprint of Emerson's _Essays._--Shipwreck.

LXIX. Emerson. Concord, 30 October, 1841. Pleasure in English
reprint of _Essays._--Lectures on the Times.--Opportunities of
the Lecture-room.--Accounts.

LXX. Emerson. Concord, 14 November, 1841. Remittance of L40.--
His banker.--Gambardella.--Preparation for lectures on the Times.

LXXI. Carlyle. Chelsea, 19 November, 1841. Gambardella.--
Lawrence's portrait.--Emerson's Essays in England.--Address at
Waterville College.--_The Dial._--Emerson's criticism on Landor.

LXXII. Carlyle. Chelsea, 6 December, 1841. Acknowledgment of
remittance of L40.--American funds.--Landor.--Emerson's Lectures.

LXXIII. Emerson. New York, 28 February, 1842. Remittance of
L48.--American investments.--Death of his son.--Alcott going
to England.

LXXIV. Carlyle. Templand, 28 March, 1842. Sympathy, with
Emerson.--Death of Mrs. Carlyle's mother.--At Templand to settle
affairs.--Life there.--A book on Cromwell begun.

LXXV. Emerson. Concord, 31 March, 1842. Bereavement.--Alcott
going to England.--Editorship of _Dial._--Mr. Henry Lee.--
Lectures in New York.

---------------------



CORRESPONDENCE OF CARLYLE AND EMERSON

At the beginning of his "English Traits," Mr. Emerson, writing of
his visit to England in 1833, when he was thirty years old, says
that it was mainly the attraction of three or four writers, of
whom Carlyle was one, that had led him to Europe. Carlyle's name
was not then generally known, and it illustrates Emerson's mental
attitude that he should have thus early recognized his genius,
and felt sympathy with it.

The decade from 1820 to 1830 was a period of unusual dulness in
English thought and imagination. All the great literary
reputations belonged to the beginning of the century, Byron,
Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, had said their say.
The intellectual life of the new generation had not yet found
expression. But toward the end of this time a series of
articles, mostly on German literature, appearing in the Edinburgh
and in the Foreign Quarterly Review, an essay on Burns, another
on Voltaire, still more a paper entitled "Characteristics,"
displayed the hand of a master, and a spirit in full sympathy
with the hitherto unexpressed tendencies and aspirations of its
time, and capable of giving them expression. Here was a writer
whose convictions were based upon principles, and whose words
stood for realities. His power was slowly acknowledged. As yet
Carlyle had received hardly a token of recognition from his
contemporaries.

He was living solitary, poor, independent, in "desperate hope,"
at Craigenputtock. On August 24,1833, he makes entry in his
Journal as follows: "I am left here the solitariest, stranded,
most helpless creature that I have been for many years.....
Nobody asks me to work at articles. The thing I want to write is
quite other than an article... In _all_ times there is a word
which spoken to men; to the actual generation of men, would
thrill their inmost soul. But the way to find that word? The
way to speak it when found?" The next entry in his Journal shows
that Carlyle had found the word. It is the name "Ralph Waldo
Emerson," the record of Emerson's unexpected visit. "I shall
never forget the visitor," wrote Mrs. Carlyle, long afterwards,
"who years ago, in the Desert, descended on us, out of the clouds
as it were, and made one day there look like enchantment for us,
and left me weeping that it was only one day."

At the time of this memorable visit Emerson was morally not less
solitary than Carlyle; he was still less known; his name had
been unheard by his host in the desert. But his voice was soon
to become also the voice of a leader. With temperaments sharply
contrasted, with traditions, inheritances, and circumstances
radically different, with views of life and of the universe
widely at variance, the souls of these two young men were yet in
sympathy, for their characters were based upon the same
foundation of principle. In their independence and their
sincerity they were alike; they were united in their faith in
spiritual truth, and their reverence for it. Their modes of
thought of expression were not merely dissimilar, but divergent,
and yet, though parted by an ever widening cleft of difference,
they knew, as Carlyle said, that beneath it "the rock-strata,
miles deep, united again, and their two souls were at one"

Two days after Emerson's visit Carlyle wrote to his mother:--

"Three little happinesses have befallen us: first, a piano-tuner,
procured for five shillings and sixpence, has been here,
entirely reforming the piano, so that I can hear a little music
now, which does me no little good. Secondly, Major Irving, of
Gribton, who used at this season of the year to live and shoot at
Craigenvey, came in one day to us, and after some clatter offered
us a rent of five pounds for the right to shoot here, and even
tabled the cash that moment, and would not pocket it again.
Money easilier won never sat in my pocket; money for delivering
us from a great nuisance, for now I will tell every gunner
applicant, 'I cannot, sir; it is let.' Our third happiness was
the arrival of a certain young unknown friend, named Emerson,
from Boston, in the United States, who turned aside so far from
his British, French, and Italian travels to see me here! He had
an introduction from Mill, and a Frenchman (Baron d'Eichthal's
nephew) whom John knew at Rome. Of course we could do no other
than welcome him; the rather as he seemed to be one of the most
lovable creatures in himself we had ever looked on. He stayed
till next day with us, and talked and heard talk to his heart's
content, and left us all really sad to part with him. Jane says
it is the first journey since Noah's Deluge undertaken to
Craigenputtock for such a purpose. In any case, we had a
cheerful day from it, and ought to be thankful."

On the next Sunday, a week after his visit, Emerson wrote the
following account of it to his friend, Mr. Alexander Ireland.

"I found him one of the most simple and frank of men, and became
acquainted with him at once. We walked over several miles of
hills, and talked upon all the great questions that interest us
most. The comfort of meeting a man is that he speaks sincerely;
that he feels himself to be so rich, that he is above the
meanness of pretending to knowledge which he has not, and Carlyle
does not pretend to have solved the great problems, but rather to
be an observer of their solution as it goes forward in the world.
I asked him at what religious development the concluding passage
in his piece in the Edinburgh Review upon German literature
(say five years ago), and some passages in the piece called
'Characteristics,' pointed. He replied that he was not competent
to state even to himself,--he waited rather to see. My own
feeling was that I had met with men of far less power who had got
greater insight into religious truth. He is, as you might guess
from his papers, the most catholic of philosophers; he forgives
and loves everybody, and wishes each to struggle on in his own
place and arrive at his own ends. But his respect for eminent
men, or rather his scale of eminence, is about the reverse of the
popular scale. Scott, Mackintosh, Jeffrey, Gibbon,--even Bacon,
--are no heroes of his; stranger yet, he hardly admires Socrates,
the glory of the Greek world; but Burns, and Samuel Johnson, and
Mirabeau, he said interested him, and I suppose whoever else has
given himself with all his heart to a leading instinct, and has
not calculated too much. But I cannot think of sketching even
his opinions, or repeating his conversations here. I will
cheerfully do it when you visit me here in America. He talks
finely, seems to love the broad Scotch, and I loved him very much
at once. I am afraid he finds his entire solitude tedious, but I
could not help congratulating him upon his treasure in his wife,
and I hope he will not leave the moors; 't is so much better for
a man of letters to nurse himself in seclusion than to be filed
down to the common level by the compliances and imitations of
city society." *

-------------
* _Ralph Waldo Emerson. Recollections of his Visits to England_
By Alexander Ireland. London, 1882, p. 58.
------------

Twenty-three years later, in his "English Traits," Emerson once
more describes his visit, and tells of his impressions of
Carlyle.

"From Edinburgh I went to the Highlands. On my return I came
from Glasgow to Dumfries, and being intent on delivering a letter
which I had brought from Rome, inquired for Craigenputtock. It
was a farm in Nithsdale, in the parish of Dunscore, sixteen miles
distant. No public coach passed near it, so I took a private
carriage from the inn. I found the house amid desolate heathery
hills, where the lonely scholar nourished his mighty heart.
Carlyle was a man from his youth, an author who did not need to
hide from his readers, and as absolute a man of the world,
unknown and exiled on that hill-farm, as if holding on his own
terms what is best in London. He was tall and gaunt, with a
cliff-like brow, self-possessed and holding his extraordinary
powers of conversation in easy command; clinging to his northern
accent with evident relish; full of lively anecdote, and with a
streaming humor which floated everything he looked upon. His
talk, playfully exalting the most familiar objects, put the
companion at once into an acquaintance with his Lars and Lemurs,
and it was very pleasant to learn what was predestined to be a
pretty mythology. Few were the objects and lonely the man, 'not
a person to speak to within sixteen miles, except the minister of
Dunscore'; so that books inevitably made his topics.