Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I.
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I.
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
He is above the middle size,
stoops slightly, dresses carefully, but without any approach to foppery.
His address, somewhat high and distant at first, softens into simplicity
and cordial kindness. His conversation is abundant, inartificial, flowing
on, and warbling as it flows, more practical than you would expect from
the cast of his writings—picturesque and graphic in a high measure—full of
the results of extensive and minute observation—often terribly direct and
strong, garnished with French and German phrase, rendered racy by the
accompaniment of the purest Annandale accent, and coming to its climaxes,
ever and anon, in long, deep, chest-shaking bursts of laughter.
Altogether, in an age of singularities, Thomas Carlyle stands peculiarly
alone. Generally known, and warmly appreciated, he has of late
become—popular, in the strict sense, he is not, and may never be. His
works may never climb the family library, nor his name become a household
word; but while the Thomsons and the Campbells shed their gentle genius,
like light, into the hall and the hovel—the shop of the artisan and the
sheiling of the shepherd, Carlyle, like the Landors and Lambs of this age,
and the Brownes and Burtons of a past, will exert a more limited but
profounder power—cast a dimmer but more gorgeous radiance—attract fewer
but more devoted admirers, and obtain an equal, and perhaps more enviable
immortality.
To the foregoing sketch of CARLYLE, which is from the eloquent critical
description of Gilfillan, we append the following, which is from a letter
recently published in the Dumfries and Galloway Courier. The writer, after
remarking at some length upon the “Latter Day Pamphlets,” which are
Carlyle’s latest productions, proceeds to give this graphic and
interesting sketch of his personal appearance and conversation:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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