Search -
An outline of the doctrines of Thomas Carlyle
An outline of the doctrines of Thomas Carlyle Author:Thomas Carlyle Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: name, is Love; and the wise head never yet was, without first the generous heart..." 4. 267. ' How xan' a man, without clear vision in his heart first of all,... more » have any clear vision in the head? It is impossible!' 14. 83. (3) '...If we really desire- to understand the truth on . any subject, not merely, as is much more common, to confirm our already existing opinions, and gratify this and the other pitiful claim of vanity or malice in respect of it, tolerance may be regarded as the most indispensable of all prerequisites; the condition, indeed, by which alone any real progress in the question becomes possible. In respect of our fellow- men, and all real insight into their characters, this is especially true. No character, we may affirm, was ever rightly understood till it had first been regarded with a certain feeling, not of tolerance only, but of sympathy. For here, more than in any other case, it is verified that the heart sees farther than the head. Let us be sure, our enemy is not that hateful being we are too apt to paint him. His vices and basenesses lie combined in far other order before his own mind than before ours; and under colours which palliate them, may perhaps exhibit them as virtues. Were he the wretch of our imagining, his -life would be a burden to himself: for it is not by bread alone that the basest mortal lives; a certain approval of conscience is equally essential even to physical chapter{Section 4existence; is the fine all-pervading cement by which that wondrous union, a Self, is held together. Since the man, therefore, is not in Bedlam, and has not shot or hanged himself, let us take comfort, and conclude that he is one of two things : either a vicious dog in man's guise, to be muzzled and mourned over, and greatly marvelled at; or a real man, and ...« less