Victorian Worthies | Page 6

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 to the stern discipline of the home, he passed, happily on the whole, through his childhood and soon outstripped his comrades in the village school. His success there led to his going in his tenth year to the grammar school at Annan; and before he reached his fourteenth year he trudged off on foot to Edinburgh to begin his studies at the university.
Instead of young men caught up by express trains