Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/125

 100l. Slowly and with great difficulty Carlyle regained his mood and repaired his loss. A vague suggestion of some employment in national education came to nothing; he declined the editorship of a newspaper at Lichfield; and declined also, with some indignation at the offensive tone of patronage, an offer of a clerkship of 200l. a year in Basil Montagu's office. He admired Montagu's faith that ‘a polar bear, reduced to a state of dyspeptic digestion, might safely be trusted tending rabbits.’ A visit of four weeks to his mother at the end of 1835, and a visit from John Carlyle in the summer of 1836, relieved his toils. At last, in the evening of 12 Jan. 1837, he finished his manuscript, and gave it to his wife, saying that he could tell the world, ‘You have not had for a hundred years any book that comes more direct and flamingly from the heart of a living man. Do what you like with it, you ——.’

Six months elapsed before its publication. A few articles, the ‘Diamond Necklace’ (refused by the ‘Foreign Quarterly’ when written at Craigenputtock, and published in ‘Fraser’ in the spring of 1837), ‘Mirabeau,’ and the ‘Parliamentary History of the French Revolution’ (in the ‘Westminster,’ January and April 1837), supplied some funds. Miss Martineau, whose acquaintance he had made in November 1836, now suggested that he might lecture in England as well as America. With some other friends she collected subscriptions, and he gave a course of six lectures at Willis's Rooms upon ‘German Literature’ in May 1837 (a report of these lectures was published by Professor Dowden in the ‘Nineteenth Century’ for May 1881). He interested his audience and made a net gain of 135l. In May 1838 he repeated the experiment, giving a course of twelve lectures on ‘The whole Spiritual History of Man from the earliest times until now,’ and earning nearly 300l. In May 1839 he again lectured on the ‘French Revolution,’ making nearly 200l.; and in May 1840, upon ‘Hero-worship,’ receiving again about 200l. The last course alone was published. The lectures were successful, the broad accent contributing to the effect of the original style and sentiment; and the money results were important. Carlyle felt that oratorical success was unwholesome and the excitement trying. He never spoke again in public, except in his Edinburgh address of 1866.

The first course had finally lifted Carlyle above want. The ‘French Revolution’ gained a decided success. The sale was slow at first, but good judges approved. Mill reviewed him enthusiastically in the ‘Westminster,’ and thinks (Autobiography, p. 217) that he contributed materially to the early success of the book. Carlyle, exhausted by his work, spent two months at Scotsbrig, resting and smoking pipes with his mother. He saw the grand view of the Cumberland mountains as he went, and says: ‘Tartarus itself, and the pale kingdoms of Dis, could not have been more preternatural to me—most stern, gloomy, sad, grand yet terrible, yet steeped in woe.’ He returned, however, refreshed by the rest and his mother's society, to find his position materially improved, and to be enabled at once to send off substantial proofs of the improvement to his mother. Editors became attentive, and Fraser now proposed an edition of ‘Sartor Resartus’ and of the collected ‘Essays.’ America was also beginning to send him supplies. Emerson secured the publication for the author's benefit of the ‘French Revolution’ and the ‘Miscellanies,’ and it seems from the different statements in their correspondence that Carlyle must have received about 500l. from this source in 1838–1842. The later books were appropriated by American publishers without recompense to the author. Carlyle had made some valuable friendships during these years, and his growing fame opened the houses of many well-known people. His relations to Mill gradually cooled; Mill's friends repelled him; though he still (1837) thought Mill ‘infinitely too good’ for his associates, he loved him as ‘a friend frozen in ice for me’ (, iii. 108). The radical difference of opinions and Mill's own gradual withdrawal from society widened the gulf to complete separation. John Sterling had accidentally met Carlyle in Mill's company in February 1835 (apparently dated 1834 in Carlyle's ‘Life of Sterling,’ but Carlyle was then at Craigenputtock). Sterling had just given up the clerical career. He became a disciple of Carlyle, though at first with many differences, and gained the warmest affection of his master. An introduction to Sterling's father, with an offer of employment on the ‘Times,’ honourably rejected by Carlyle, followed. The friendship is commemorated in the most delightful of Carlyle's writings. Through Sterling, Carlyle came to know F. D. Maurice. The genuine liking shared by all who had personal intercourse with Maurice was tempered by a profound conviction of the futility of Maurice's philosophy. Another friend, Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, was acquired about this time, and was always loved by Carlyle in spite of Mrs. Carlyle's occasional mockery. He made some acquaintance, too, with persons of social position. Lord Monteagle sought him out in 1838. He thus came into connection with Mr. James Garth Marshall, who in 1839 gave