Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 26.djvu/20

Rh terseness and vigour, or a fresh and unexpected turn of phrase, might no doubt be detected here and there by a critical and attentive reader; but as a rule the 'pot-boilers' of the gods are not distinguishable from those of ordinary mortals, and there are no traces of divinity about Carlyle's. They might have been written in an equally meritorious manner by any industrious day-labourer in the British Museum Library; and, to me at least, they seem all the more interesting on that very account. There is even something pathetic in their mere alphabetical sequence; it is so touchingly eloquent of the fact that the immortal contributor's subjects were determined not by his own preferences but by the requirements of his editorial task-master. From 'Montaigne' to 'Montagu (Lady Mary Wortley'), and from Lady Mary back again to France in 'Montesquieu,' are quaint enough transitions, as also is that from 'The Netherlands' to 'Northamptonshire' and from 'Necker' to 'Nelson.' Their initial letter connects them by a tie even slighter than that which satisfied Captain Fluellen in the case of Alexander the Great and Prince Hal. Even absolute identity of name does not ensure any congruity between subjects; and the diligent-going journeyman has no sooner turned out one Moore than he is at work upon another. So much for the author of Zeluco, now for the hero of Corufia. It is not only Pegasus plodding along on the hoof instead of soaring on the wing; it is Pegasus actually in the carrier's cartshafts. And it is in no spirit of irreverence but with something almost like tenderness that one traces the course of the noble animal with the vehicle which he so honoured, and note how little 'say' he had in the selection of his route.

The last piece, however, which has been rescued from the limbo of 'back numbers' is of quite a different order. 'Cruthers and Jonson, or The Outskirts of Life,' contributed to Fraser's Magazine for January 1831—that is to say about the date of Sartor Resartus—is a piece of remarkable interest, as illustrative of Carlyle's strength and weakness alike. Considered as a story, it