[321]Macaulay, II. 463, "History of England," ch. XI.
[322]Macaulay, II. 465, "History of England," ch. XI.
[323]Macaulay, III. 513, "History of England," ch. XVIII.
[324]Macaulay, III. 519, "History of England," ch. XVIII.
[325]Macaulay, III. 526, "History of England," ch. XVIII.
[CHAPTER FOURTH]
[Philosophy and History—Carlyle]
When we ask Englishmen, especially those under forty, who amongst them are the great thinkers, they first mention Carlyle; but at the same time they advise us not to read him, warning us that we will not understand him at all. Then, of course, we hasten to get the twenty volumes of Carlyle—criticism, history, pamphlets, fantasies, philosophy; we read them with very strange emotions, contradicting every morning our opinion of the night before. We discover at last that we are in presence of a strange animal, a relic of a lost family, a sort of mastodon, who has strayed in a world not made for him. We rejoice in this zoological good luck, and dissect him with minute curiosity, telling ourselves that we shall probably never find another like him.