Pages from a Journal with Other Papers | Page 2

an earnest life. The 'people' could not save you with their
'sympathy' if they had never so much of it to give; a man can and must
save himself, with or without their sympathy, as it may chance.
"And may all good be with you, my kind young friend, and a heart
stout enough for this adventure you are upon; that is the best 'good' of
all.
"I remain, yours very sincerely,
"T. CARLYLE."
Carlyle had forgotten this letter, but said, "It is undoubtedly mine. It is
what I have always believed . . . it has been so ever since I was at
college. I do not mean to say I was not loved there as warmly by noble
friends as ever man could be, but the world tumbled on me, and has
ever since then been tumbling on me rubbish, huge wagon-loads of
rubbish, thinking to smother me, and was surprised it did not smother
me--turned round with amazement and said, 'What, you alive yet?' . . .
While I was writing my Frederick my best friends, out of delicacy, did
not call. Those who came were those I did not want to come, and I saw
very few of them. I shook off everything to right and left. At last the
work would have killed me, and I was obliged to take to riding, chiefly
in the dark, about fourteen miles most days, plunging and floundering
on. I ought to have been younger to have undertaken such a task. If
they were to offer me all Prussia, all the solar system, I would not write
Frederick again. No bribe from God or man would tempt me to do it."
He was re-reading his Frederick, to correct it for the stereotyped edition.
"On the whole I think it is very well done. No man perhaps in England
could have done it better. If you write a book though now, you must
just pitch it out of window and say, 'Ho! all you jackasses, come and

trample on it and trample it into mud, or go on till you are tired.'" He
laughed heartily at this explosion. His laughter struck me--humour
controlling his wrath and in a sense ABOVE it, as if the final word
were by no means hatred or contempt, even for the jackass. " . . . No
piece of news of late years has gladdened me like the victory of the
Prussians over the Austrians. It was the triumph of Prussian over
French and Napoleonic influence. The Prussians were a valiant, pious
people, and it was a question which should have the most power in
Germany, they or Napoleon. The French are sunk in all kinds of filth.
Compare what the Prussians did with what we did in the Crimea. The
English people are an incredible people. They seem to think that it is
not necessary that a general should have the least knowledge of the art
of war. It is as if you had the stone, and should cry out to any travelling
tinker or blacksmith and say, 'Here, come here and cut me for the
stone,' and he WOULD cut you! Sir Charles Napier would have been a
great general if he had had the opportunity. He was much delighted
with Frederick. 'Frederick was a most extraordinary general,' said Sir
Charles, and on examination I found out that all that Sir Charles had
read of Frederick was a manual for Prussian officers, published by him
about 1760, telling them what to do on particular occasions. I was very
pleased at this admiration of Frederick by Sir Charles . . .
"Sir John Bowring was one of your model men; men who go about
imagining themselves the models of all virtues, and they are models of
something very different. He was one of your patriots, and the
Government to quiet him sent him out to China. When he got there he
went to war with a third of the human race! He, the patriot, he who
believed in the greatest-happiness principle, immediately went to war
with a third of the human race!" (Great laughter from T.C.) "And so far
as I can make out he was all wrong.
"The Frederick is being translated into German. It is being done by a
man whose name I have forgotten, but it was begun by one of the most
faithful friends I ever had, Neuberg. I could not work in the rooms in
the offices where lay the State papers I wanted to use, it brought on
such a headache, but Neuberg went there, and for six months worked
all day copying. He was taken ill, and a surgical operation was badly

performed, and then in that wild, black weather at the beginning of last
year, just after I