In the sphere of ethics, Carlyle's influence has been inspirational in the highest sense. To a generation which had to choose between the ethics of a conventional theology and the ethics of a cold, prosaic utilitarianism, Carlyle's treatment of the whole subject of duty came as a revelation. If in the sphere of social relationships he did not contribute to the settlement of the theoretic side of complex problems, he did what was equally important—he roused earnest minds to a sense of the urgency and magnitude of the problem, awakened the feeling of individual responsibility, and quickened the sense of social duty which had grown weak during the reign of laissez faire. If Carlyle had no final message for mankind, if he brought no gospel of glad tidings, he nevertheless did a work which was as important as it was pressing. In the form of a modern John the Baptist, the Chelsea Prophet with not a little of the wilderness atmosphere about him, preached in grimly defiant mood to a pleasure-loving generation the great doctrines which lie at the root of all religions—the doctrines of Repentance, Righteousness, and Retribution.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 141.
[2] Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 142.
[3] Reminiscences, vol. ii. p. 69.
[4] Reminiscences, vol. ii. pp. 18, 19.
[5] Now 2 Spey Street.
[6] Masson's 'Edinburgh Sketches and Memories,' pp. 329-30.
[7] Reminiscences, vol. ii. p. 30.