_Peter Nimmo: A Rhapsody_ is duly registered among Carlyle’s anonymous contributions to Fraser’s Magazine in Mr. Richard Herne Shepherd’s _Bibliography of Carlyle_ (1881). Should any one entertain doubts, even after such excellent authority, a glance at the prose preface to the thing, signed O. Y. (“Oliver Yorke”), in _Fraser_ for February 1831, will remove them. After specifying Edinburgh University as Peter’s local habitat, and estimating the enormously diffused celebrity he has attained by his long persistence there, the preface proceeds: “The world itself is interested in these matters: singular men are at all times worthy of being described and sung; nay, strictly considered, there is nothing else worthy.... The Napoleon, the Nimmo, are mystic windows through which we glance deeper into the hidden ways of Nature, and discern under a clearer figure the working of that inscrutable Spirit of the Time, and Spirit of Time itself, who is by some thought to be the Devil.” There may remain some little question as to the date of the _Rhapsody_. That it was written by Carlyle in Annandale seems proved by the phrase “in heaths and splashy weather” in the prologue. The date _may_ have been any time before 1831; but before 1821 seems the most likely. Footnote 37: Quoted by Mr. Froude in his _Nineteenth Century_ article. Footnote 38: Mr. Ireland’s copies of early Carlyle Letters, in Mr. Conway’s _Memoir_, p. 185. Footnote 39: _Ibid._ Footnote 40: Mr. Ireland’s copies of Carlyle’s Letters, in _Conway_, pp. 192, 193. Footnote 41: _Reminiscences_, i. 208, 209. Footnote 42: