Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 7.djvu/214

 158 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS acteristic work, the fantastic hero of which, Diogenes Teufelsdrockh, illustrates in his life and opinions the mystical and grotesque " Philosophy of Clothes." " Sartor Resartus " is notable in the literary history of Carlyle as revealing the Germanization of his mind, and his abandonment of the comparatively simple diction of his earlier essays for the thoroughly individual style of his later works eruptive, ejaculatory, but always powerful, and often rising to an epic sublim- ity. Life at Craigenputtock was varied on the part of Carlyle by occasional visits to Edinburgh, in one of which the idea of writing his " French Revolu- tion " occurred to him ; by a residence of six months in London, during which he made the acquaintance of John Stuart Mill and John Sterling; and by visits from old friends like Jeffrey, and new admirers like Emerson. In 1830 Carlyle was reduced to great straits ; and he had to borrow ^50 from Jeffrey for the ex- penses of his journey to London, although he declined to accept an annuity of Having by 1834 again saved ,200, Carlyle resolved to try his fortune in Lon- don, and on June 10th established himself in the house, 5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, in which he lived till the day of his death. Here he settled down to the writing of his " French Revolution," which appeared in 1837. This enterprise was also put an end to in 1835, owing to the destruction, by a servant-girl, of all but four or five leaves of the manuscript of the first volume, which had been lent to John Stuart Mill. Carlyle accepted ^100 from Mill as compensation for his loss. In the years 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1840, Carlyle lectured to considerable, yet select, audiences on " German Literature," " The Successive Periods of European Culture," "The Revolutions of Modern Europe," and "Heroes, Hero-worship, and the Heroic in History." Carlyle's yearly earnings from these lectures, the last series of which had been published, varied between ,135 and ,300, and maintained him and his wife till the " French Revolution " not only established his reputation as a literary genius of the highest order, and as, in Goethe's phrase, "a new moral force," but placed him beyond the possibility of want. Yet, until late in life, his annual income from literature was not more than ^400. In 1838 appeared " Sartor Resartus " in book form, and the first edition of his " Miscel- lanies." The following year, Carlyle, who was at one time averse to the idea of becoming a personal force in politics, published the first of a series of attacks on the shams and corruptions of modern society, under the title of " Chartism." This he followed in 1843 with " Past and Present," and in 1850 with " Latter- day Pamphlets," which proved among other things that, if he did not quite ap- prove of slavery, he disapproved of the manner in which it had been abolished in the British dominions. In 1845 appeared " Cromwell's Letters and Speeches," perhaps the most successful of all his works, inasmuch as it completely revolu- tionized the public estimate of its subject. In 185 1 he published a biography of his friend. John Sterling. From this time Carlyle gave himself up entirely to his largest work, "The History of Frederick II., commonly called Frederick the Great." the first two volumes of which were published in 1858, and which was concluded in 1 865. The preparation of this book led Carlyle to make two ex-
 * ioo from the same source.