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Thomas Carlyle: A History of His Life in London, 1834-1881
Thomas Carlyle A History of His Life in London 18341881 Author:James Anthony Froude Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XIX. A.D. 1851-2. MS. 56-57. Reviews 5f the Pamphlets—Cheyne Bow—Party at the Grange— ' Life of Sterling '—Reception of it—Coleridge and his disciples—Spiritual optics—Hyde Park Exhibition—A month at Malvern—Scotland—Trip to Paris with Lord Ashburton. There is a condition familiar to men o... more »f letters, and I suppose to artists of all descriptions, which may be called a moulting state. The imagination, exhausted by long efforts, sheds its feathers, and mind and body remain sick and dispirited till they grow again. Carlyle was thus moulting after the ' Latter-day Pamphlets.' He was eager to write, but his ideas were shapeless. His wings would not lift him. He was chained to the ground. Unable to produce anything, he began to read voraciously; he bought a copy of the ' Annual Register;' he worked entirely through it, finding there ' a great quantity of agreeable and not quite useless information.' He read Sophocles with profound admiration. His friends came about Cheyne Row, eager to see him after his absence. They were welcome in a sense, but ' alas!' he confessed, ' nobody comes whose talk is half so good to me as silence. I fly out of the way of everybody, and would much rather smoke a pipe of wholesome tobacco than talk to anyone in London just now. Nay, their talk is often rather an offence to me, and I murmur to myself, Why open one's lips for such a purpose ?' The auturnn quarterlies were busy upon the Pamphlets, and the shrieking'tone was considerably modi- Reviews of the Pamphlets. 55 fied. A review of them by Masson, in the ' North British,' distinctly pleased Carlyle. A review in the ' Dublin ' he found ' excellently serious,' and conjectured that it came from some Anglican pervert or convert. It was written, I believe, by Dr. Ward.« less