[By E. H. Baily, R.A. 1850.]
438. Sir Henry Thomas de la Beche. Geologist.
[Born in London, 1796. Still living.]
Distinguished himself early by his geological researches in England, France, Italy, and the West Indies. In 1835, the government instituted, at his suggestion, a Geological Survey of Great Britain, in conjunction with, the Ordnance Survey, and subsequently extended it to the United Kingdom, with Sir Henry as Director General. This post he now holds, in conjunction with the direction of the Museum of Practical Geology, and of the Government School of Mines. The author of many highly esteemed works and memoirs on geology; and has rendered good service to the state, by directing his knowledge to practical and educational purposes, and by inducing politicians, seldom ready to advance in a scientific direction, to found institutions of a high intellectual type.
[By E. H. Baily, R.A. 1845. From the bronze deposited in the Museum of Economic Geology, London.]
439. Thomas Carlyle. Writer.
[Born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, 1796. Still living.]
Critic, Philosopher, Essayist, Censor: the criticism acute, penetrating,, severe; the philosophy idol-worship; the essay-writing picturesque, striking, animated, and strongly coloured; the censorship furious, testy, useless, if not unmeaning. Saturated with German metaphysics, full of German literature, and delighting in the German form of expression. If Thomas Carlyle would throw off his foreign affectations, and forget himself in his labours, he would be one of our most instructive, useful, convincing, and admirable writers; for his heart is large, his intellect strong, and both heart and intellect have long striven to inculcate human love amongst men, and to build, upon mutual affection, high deeds, and benevolent aspirations. But Thomas Carlyle, pen in hand, never did forget himself at any one instant of his life, and never will. To use one of his own Germanisms, he is the very incarnation of “Ich.” An instructed author will hold the balance fairly between his subject and his reader, dealing with each with intelligent reference to the other. Carlyle usually cares nothing either for his reader or his subject, but swallows up both. Whatever he shows us, we chiefly see Thomas Carlyle. “The French Revolution” is the best of his works! His pictures, there are startling, wonderful, and highly painted; his eloquence is inspiriting, and his imagery grand. As a social and moral Reformer, he beats the air, belonging to that humblest order of architects who are clever enough at destroying houses, but have no power to set up others in their place. Yet the influence of Carlyle has been great, both in England and America. He has forced men to think—he has appealed with irresistible power to their better natures—given vigour and direction to their impulses, and torn the veil from quackery as often as the evil thing has crossed his manly and indignant path. Sad thought that so serviceable an arm should be clogged with fetters of its own forging—that an almost boundless capacity for good should be restricted by a tether of its own fashioning.
[By H. Weigall.]
440. Frederick Carpenter Skey. Surgeon.