Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/118



Edward Irving, to whom he now spoke for the first time at a friend's rooms. Irving miserable was an old pupil of the Annan school, where Carlyle had once seen him on a visit. He had become a schoolmaster at Kirkcaldy. Some of the parents were discontented with his teaching, and resolved to import a second schoolmaster. Christieson (professor of Latin at Edinburgh) and Leslie recommended Carlyle, who thus in the summer of 1816 became a rival of Irving. Irving, however, welcomed him with a generosity which he warmly acknowledged, and they at once formed a close intimacy. Carlyle made use of Irving's library, where he read Gibbon and much French literature, and they made little expeditions together, vividly described in the ‘Reminiscences’ (vol. i.) To Irving's literary example Carlyle thinks that he owed ‘something of his own poor affectations’ in style (Reminiscences, i. 119).

Carlyle's school duties were thoroughly distasteful. His reserve, irritability, and power of sarcasm were bad equipments for a schoolmaster's work. He kept his pupils in awe without physical force, but his success was the chiefly negative. He saw little society, but was attracted by a Miss Margaret Gordon, an ex-pupil of Irving's, probably the original of ‘Blumine’ in ‘Sartor Resartus.’ An aunt with whom Miss Gordon lived put a stop to some talk of an engagement. Miss Gordon took leave of him in a remarkable letter, in which, after a serious warning against the dangers of pride and excessive severity, she begs him to think of her as a sister, though she will not see him again. She soon married a member of parliament who became ‘governor of Nova Scotia (or so)’ and was living about 1840.

‘Schoolmastering’ had become intolerable. The ministry had also become out of the question, as Carlyle's wider reading had led to his abandonment of the orthodox views. In September 1818 he told his father that he had saved about 90l., and with this and a few mathematical pupils could support himself in Edinburgh till he could qualify himself for the bar. He accordingly went to Edinburgh in December 1819 with Irving, who had given up his own school with a view to entering upon his ministerial functions. Carlyle had now begun to suffer from the dyspepsia which tormented him through life: ‘A rat was gnawing at the pit of his stomach.’ The consequent irritability already found vent in language of grotesque exaggeration where it is often difficult to distinguish between the serious and the intentionally humorous. The little annoyances incidental to life in mean lodgings are transfigured into a hunting of the furies. The ‘three most miserable years’ of his life followed. He obtained a pupil or two and was employed by Brewster on the ‘Encyclopædias.’ He managed just to pay his way; but he soon gave up his law studies — always uncongenial — and found no other opening. The misery of the lower classes at this time of universal depression made a profound impression, and he sympathised with the general discontent. He was also going through a religious crisis. The collapse of his old beliefs seemed to leave him no escape from gloomy and degrading materialism. After much mental agonv, he one day in June 1821, after ‘three weeks of total sleeplessness,’ went through the crisis described ‘quite literally’ in ‘Sartor Resartus’ (bk. ii. ch. vii., where the Rue St. Thomas de l'Enfer stands for Leith Walk). From this hour he dated his ‘spiritual new birth,’ though for four years more he had many mental struggles. Carlyle had now taken to German study, and his great helper in this crisis appears to have been Goethe. The serenity of Goethe probably attracted him by contrast to his own vehemence. Goethe, as he thought, showed that the highest culture and most unreserved acceptance of the results of modern inquiry might be combined with a reverent and truly religious conception of the universe. Carlyle continued to revere Goethe, though the religious sentiments which he preserved, Scotch Calvinism minus the dogma, were very unlike those of his spiritual guide.

During this period of struggle Carlyle was supported by the steady confidence of his father, the anxious affection of his mother, and the cordial sympathy of his brothers and sisters. He was eagerly welcomed on occasional visits to Mainhill, and, though sometimes alarming his family by his complaints, always returned their affection and generally made the best of his prospects. To them he seldom said a harsh word. Another consolation was the friendship of Irving, now (October. 1819) under Chalmers at Glasgow. He visited Irving in 1820, and at Drumclog Moor, whither Irving had walked with him on the way to Ecclefechan, explained to his friend the difference of faith which now divided them. The scene is vividly described in the ‘Reminiscences’ (i. 177). Carlyle walked fifty-four miles the next day, the longest walk he ever took. Irving did his utmost both to comfort Carlyle and to find him employment. Carlyle had applied in vain to London booksellers, proposing, for one thing, a complete translation of Schiller. Captain Basil Hall had offered to take Carlyle as a kind of scientific secretary, on offer which Carlyle