The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II | Page 9

_seventh month;_ well if they see the light full-grown (they and their
adjuncts) in the _second century;_ for old Time is a most deliberate
breeder!--But to speak without figure, I have been very much delighted
with the clearness, simplicity, quiet energy and veracity of this
discourse; and also with the fact of its spontaneous appearance here
among us. The prime mover of the Printing, I find, is one Thomas
Ballantyne, editor of a Manchester Newspaper, a very good, cheery
little fellow, once a Paisley weaver as he informs me,--a great admirer
of all worthy things.
---------- * "A Lecture read before the Mechanics' Apprentices' Library
Association, Boston, January 25, 1841." ----------
My paper is so fast failing, let me tell you of the writer on Loyola. He
is a James Stephen, Head Under-Secretary of the Colonial Office,--that
is to say, I believe, real governor of the British Colonies, so far as they
have any governing. He is of Wilberforce's creed, of Wilberforce's kin;
a man past middle age, yet still in full vigor; reckoned an enormous
fellow for "despatch of business," &c., especially by Taylor (_van
Artevelde_) and others who are with him or under him in Downing
Street.... I regard the man as standing on the confines of Genius and
Dilettantism,--a man of many really good qualities, and excellent at the
despatch of business. There we will leave him. --A Mrs. Lee of

Brookline near you has made a pleasant Book about Jean Paul, chiefly
by excerpting.* I am sorry to find Gunderode & Co. a decided
weariness!** Cromwell--Cromwell? Do not mention such a word, if
you love me! And yet--Farewell, my Friend, tonight!
Yours ever, T. Carlyle
I will apprise Sterling before long: he is at Falmouth, and well; urging
me much to start a Periodical here!
Gambardella promises to become a real Painter; there is a glow of real
fire in the wild southern man: next to no articulate intellect or the like,
but of inarticulate much, or I mistake. He has tried to paint me for you;
but cannot, he says!
--------- * "Life of Jean Paul Frederic Richter. Compiled from various
Sources. Together with his Autobiography. Translated from the
German." In Two Volumes. Boston, 1842. This book, which is one of
the best in English concerning Jean Paul, was the work of the late Mrs.
Thomas (Eliza Buckminster) Lee.
** In the _Dial,_ for January, 1842, is an article by Miss Fuller on
"Bettine Brentano and Gunderode,"--a decided weariness. The
Canoness Gunderode was a friend of Bettine's, older and not much
wiser than herself. ---------

LXXXI. Carlyle to Emerson
Chelsea, London, 11 March, 1848
Dear Emerson,--I know not whose turn it is to write; though a suspicion
has long attended me that it was yours, and above all an indisputable
wish that you would do it: but this present is a cursory line, all on
business,--and as usual all on business of my own.
I have finished a Book, and just set the Printer to it; one solid volume
(rather bigger than one of the French Revolution Volumes, as I
compute); it is a somewhat fiery and questionable "Tract for the
Times," not by a Puseyite, which the terrible aspect of things here has
forced from me,--I know not whether as preliminary to Oliver or not;
but it had gradually grown to be the preliminary of anything possible
for me: so there it is written; and I am a very sick, but withal a
comparatively very free man. The Title of the thing is to be _Past and
Present:_ it is divided into Four Books, "Book I. Proem," "Book II. The
Ancient Monk," "Book III. The Modern Worker," and "Book IV.

Horoscope" (or some such thing):--the size of it I guessed at above.
The practical business, accordingly, is: How to cut out that New York
scoundrel, who fancies that because there is no gallows it is permitted
to steal? I have a distinct desire to do that;-- altogether apart from the
money to be gained thereby. A friend's goodness ought not to be
frustrated by a scoundrel destitute of gallows.--You told me long since
how to do the operation; and here, according to the best way I had of
fitting your scheme into my materials, is my way of attempting it.
The Book will not be out here for six good weeks from this date; it
could be kept back for a week or two longer, if that were indispensable:
but I hope it may not. In three weeks, half of it will be printed; I, in the
meanwhile, get a correct manuscript Copy of the latter half made ready:
joining the printed sheets and this manuscript, your Bookseller will
have a three weeks' start of any rival, if I instantly despatch the Parcel
to him.