Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/122

 rising. In August 1827 he received a warm acknowledgment from Goethe of his ‘Life of Schiller,’ with a present of books, medals, a necklace for Mrs. Carlyle, and a pocket-book for himself.

Carlyle had formed a more directly useful acquaintance with Jeffrey. An article sent by Irving's advice to the ‘Edinburgh Review’ had received no notice; but Carlyle, supplied with a letter of introduction from Procter (Reminiscences, ii. 21), resolved at last to call upon Jeffrey. Jeffrey was friendly, discovered a relationship to Mrs. Carlyle, to whom he became specially attached, and accepted articles for the ‘Edinburgh.’ Two, upon Jean Paul and on German Literature, appeared in June and October 1827, and the latter brought a flattering inquiry from Goethe as to the authorship. The slight improvement in his finances immediately encouraged Carlyle to send his brother John to study medicine in Germany. Jeffrey further tried by his interest with Brougham to obtain Carlyle's appointment to a professorship in the newly founded London University. He supported Carlyle in a candidature for the professorship of moral philosophy at St. Andrews, vacated by Dr. Chalmers. Testimonials were given not only by Irving, Buller, Brewster, Wilson, Leslie, and Jeffrey, but by Goethe. They failed, however, in consequence of the opposition of the principal, Dr. Nicol. Craigenputtock thus became almost a necessity; and the discovery that their landlord at Comley Bank had accepted another tenant decided them to move at the end of May 1828.

Carlyle hoped that in the seclusion of Craigenputtock he would be able to support himself by writings worthy of himself. He would not turn out a page of inferior workmanship or condescend to the slightest compromise with his principles. He struggled on for six years with varying success. He wrote the articles which form the first three volumes of the ‘Miscellanies.’ They appeared chiefly in the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ and in the ‘Foreign Review’ and ‘Fraser's Magazine,’ both new ventures. He wrote nothing which was not worth subsequent collection, and some of these writings are among his most finished performances. Down to the end of 1830 his work (except the article on Burns) was chiefly upon German literature, especially upon Goethe, with whom he continued to have a pleasant correspondence. His health was better than usual, the complaints of dyspepsia disappear from his letters; but the money question became urgent. His articles, always the slow product of a kind of mental agony, were his only resource. He was still supporting his brother John, who returned to London about 1830, and could get no patients. In February 1831 Carlyle had only 5l., and expected no more for months. He concealed his poverty from his brother, and did his best to encourage him. The demand for his articles had declined. German literature, of which he had begun a history, was not a marketable topic. His brother Alexander, to whom he had advanced 240l., had failed at Craigenputtock; and after leaving it at Whitsuntide 1831 (, ii. 144) was for a time without employment. Jeffrey's transference of the editorship of the ‘Edinburgh Review’ to Macvey Napier in the middle of 1829 stopped one source of income. In the beginning of 1831 Carlyle cut up his history of German literature into articles, and worked desperately at ‘Sartor Resartus.’ John had been forced to borrow from Jeffrey; and Carlyle resolved at last to go to London and try the publishers. He hoped to find encouragement for settling there permanently. He was forced to borrow 50l. from Jeffrey, and reached London 9 Aug. 1831. Neither Murray, nor the Longmans, nor Fraser would buy ‘Sartor Resartus.’ Carlyle found Irving plunged into dangerous illusions; Badams falling into difficulties and drink; and his old friends, as he thought, cold or faithless. A great relief, however, came through Jeffrey, who obtained an appointment for John as travelling physician to the Countess of Clare, with a salary of 300 guineas a year. Freed from this strain, Carlyle's income might suffice. Mrs. Carlyle was now able to join him in London (1 Oct. 1831), where they took lodgings at 4 Ampton Street, Gray's Inn Road, with a family named Miles, belonging to Irving's congregation. They saw Charles Buller, and now made acquaintance with J. S. Mill. Carlyle wrote his ‘Characteristics,’ which was accepted by Napier for the ‘Edinburgh,’ and his article upon Boswell's ‘Johnson’ for Fraser. Bulwer, now editing the ‘New Monthly,’ asked for articles, and Hayward got Lardner, as editor of the ‘Cabinet Encyclopædia,’ to offer 300l. for the ‘History of German Literature.’ The death of his father, 22 Jan. 1832, came upon Carlyle as a heavy blow. Though he had not obtained a publisher for ‘Sartor Resartus,’ he had established relations with some editors for future work; and he retired again for a time to the now vacant Craigenputtock, reaching it about the middle of April 1832. He set to work upon ‘Diderot,’ which he finished in October, and then made an excursion in Annandale. In November Mrs. Carlyle was called to the deathbed of her grandfather, Walter Welsh, at Templand. The solitude, the absence of books, and the weak-