Victorian Worthies | Page 6

robuster faith. Their
faith and their achievements may help to banish such doubts to-day. As
one of the few survivors of that Victorian era has lately said: 'Only
those whose minds are numbed by the suspicion that all times are
tolerably alike, and men and women much of a muchness, will deny
that it was a generation of intrepid efforts forward.' Some fell in
mid-combat: some survived to witness the eventual victory of their
cause. For all might be claimed the funeral honours which Browning
claimed for his Grammarian. They aimed high; they 'threw themselves
on God': the mountain-tops are their appropriate resting-place.

THOMAS CARLYLE
1795-1881

1795. Born at Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, December 4. 1809. Enters
Edinburgh University. 1814-18. Schoolmaster at Annan and Kirkcaldy.
Friendship with Edward Irving. 1819-21. Reading law and literature at
Edinburgh and Mainhill. 1821. First meeting with Jane Welsh at
Haddington. 1822-3. Tutorship in Buller family. 1824-5. German
literature, Goethe, Life of Schiller. 1826. October 17, marriage;
residence at Comely Bank, Edinburgh. 1827. Jeffrey's friendship;
articles for Edinburgh Review. 1828-34. Craigenputtock, with intervals
in London and Edinburgh; poverty; solitude; profound study; Sartor
Resartus written; reading for French Revolution. 1834. Cheyne Row,
Chelsea, permanent home. 1834. Begins to read for, 1841 to write,
Cromwell. 1834-6. French Revolution written; finished January 12,
1837. 1837-40. Four courses of lectures in London. (German literature,
Heroes.) 1844. Changes plan of, 1845 finishes writing, Cromwell.
1846-51. Studies Ireland and modern questions; Latter-Day Pamphlets,
1849. 1851. Choice of Frederick the Great of Prussia for next subject.
1857. Two vols. printed; 1865, rest finished and published. 1865. Lord
Rector of Edinburgh University. 1866. Death of Mrs. Carlyle, April 21.
1867-9. Prepares Memorials of his wife; friendship with Froude. 1870.
Loses the use of his right hand. 1874. Refuses offer of Baronetcy or
G.C.B. 1881. Death at Chelsea, February 5; burial at Ecclefechan.
THOMAS CARLYLE
PROPHET
North-west of Carlisle (from which town the Carlyle family in all
probability first took their name), a little way along the border, the river
Annan comes down its green valley from the lowland hills to lose itself
in the wide sands of the Solway Firth. At the foot of these hills is the
village of Ecclefechan, some eight miles inland. Here in the wide
irregular street, down the side of which flows a little beck, stands the
grey cottage, built by the stonemason James Carlyle, where he lived
with his second wife, Margaret Aitken; and here on December 4, 1795,
the eldest of nine children, their son Thomas was born. There is little to
redeem the place from insignificance; the houses are mostly mean, the
position of the village is tame and commonplace. But if a visitor will

mount the hills that lie to the north, turn southward and look over the
wide expanse of land and water to the Cumbrian mountains, then,
should he be fortunate enough to see the landscape in stormy and
unsettled weather, he may realize why the land was so dear to its most
famous son that he could return to it from year to year throughout his
life and could there at all times soothe his most unquiet moods.
Through all his years in London he remained a lowland Scot and was
most at home in Annandale. With this district his fame is still bound up,
as that of Walter Scott with the Tweed, or that of Wordsworth with the
Lakes.
In this humble household Thomas Carlyle first learnt what is meant by
work, by truthfulness, and by reverence, lessons which he never forgot.
He learnt to revere authority, to revere worth, and to revere something
yet higher and more mysterious--the Unseen. In Sartor Resartus he
describes how his hero was impressed by his parents' observance of
religious duties. 'The highest whom I knew on earth I here saw bowed
down with awe unspeakable before a Higher in Heaven; such things
especially in infancy, reach inwards to the very core of your being.' His
father was a man of unusual force of character and gifted with a
wonderful power of speech, flashing out in picturesque metaphor, in
biting satire, in humorous comment upon life. He had, too, the Scotch
genius for valuing education; and it was he who decided that Tom,
whose character he had observed, should have every chance that
schooling could give him. His mother was a most affectionate,
single-hearted, and religious woman; labouring for her family, content
with her lot, her trust for her son unfailing, her only fear for him lest in
his new learning he might fall away from the old Biblical faith which
she held so firmly herself.
Reading with his father or mother, lending a hand at housework when
needed, nourishing himself on the simple oatmeal and milk which
throughout life remained his favourite food, submitting himself
instinctively