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    Skptembeir, 13,1856.] THE LEADER. 881

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    Emerson On Englastd. English Traits. % R...

    —and Charron also , -which seemed indiscriminating . He thought Degeraado indebted to ' Lucas on Happiness' and . ' Lucas on Holiness' 1 He pestered me -with Southey ; but who Is Southey ? He invited me to breakfast on Friday . On Friday I did not fail to go , and this time with . Greenougt . He entertained us at once -witli reciting half a dozea hexameter lines of Julius Csesar ' s !—from Donatus , he said . He glorified Lord Chesterfield more than -was necessary , and undervalued Burke , and undervalued Socrates ; designated as three of the greatest of ^ en , Washington , Phocion , and Timoleon ; much as our pomologists , in their lists , select the three or the six best pears ' for a small orchard ; ' and did not even omit to remark the similar termination of their names . " A great man , " he said , " should make great sacrifices , and kill his hundred

    oxen , without knowing whether they would . be consumed by gods and heroes , or whether the flies would eat them . " I had visited Professor Amici , -who had shown me his microscopes , magnifying ( it was said ) two thousand . diameters ; and I spoke of the uses to which they were applied . Landor despised entomology , yet , in the same breath , said , " The sublime was Ln a grain of dust . " I suppose I teased him about recent writers , but lie professed never to have heard of Herschel , not even hy name One room was full of pictures , which he likes to show , especially one piece , standing before -which , he said " he would give fifty guineas to the man that would swear it was a Domenichino . " I was more curious to see his library , but Mr . H- —— , one of the guests , told me that Mr . Laudor gives away his books , and has never more than a dozen , at a time in liis house .

    Mr . Xandor carries to its height the love of freak which the English delight to indulge , as if to signalize their commanding freedom . He has a wonderful brain , despotic , violent , and inexhaustible , meant for a soldier , by what chance converted to letters , in which there is not a style nor a tint not known to him , jet with an English appetite for action and heroes .

    COLERIDGE . From London , on the 5 th August , I went to Highgate , and wrote a note to Mr . Coleridge , requesting leave to pay my respects to him . It was near noon . Sir . Goleridge sent a verbal message that he was in bed , but if I would call after one o ' clock , he would see me , I returned at one , and he appeared , a short , thick old man , with bright "blue eyes and fine clear complexion , leaning on his cane . He toflk snuff freely , which presently soiled his cravat and neat black suit . He asied whether I knew Allston , and spoke warmly of his merits and doings when he knew him In Rome ; what a master of the Titianesque he was , & c , & c . He spoke of Dt . Channing . Itwas an unspeakable misfortune that lie should lave turned out a Unitarian after all . On this , he burst into a declamation on the folly and ignorance of Unitarianism—its high unreasonableness ; and taking up Bishop Waterland ' s book , which lay on the table , he read with vehemence two or three pages written by himself on the fly-leavespassages , too , which , I believe , are printed in the ' Aids to Reflection . ' "When he stopped to take breath , I interposed , that , " whilst I highly valued all his explanations , I was bound to tell him that I was born andbr « ad a Unitarian . " "Yes , " he said , " I supposed so ; " and continued as before . " It was a wonder , that after so many ages of unquestioning acquiescence in the doctrine of St . Paul , — -the doctrine of

    the Trinity , which was also , according to Philo Judseus , the doctrine of the Jews before Christ , —this handful of Priestleians should take on themselves to deny it , < fec ., & c . He was very sorry that Dr . Channing , a man towTiom he looked up—no , to say that he looked « p to him would be to speak falsely , but a man whom he looked atwith so much interest , should embrace such views . " When he saw Dr . Channing , he had hinted to him that he was afraid he loved Christianity for what was lovely and excellent— -he loved , the good in it , and not the true ; and I tell you , sir , that I have known ten persons who loved the good for one person who loved the true ; / but it is a far greater virtue to love the true for itself alone , than to love the good for itself alone . , He ( Coleridge ) knew all about Unitarianism perfectly -well , because he had once been a Unitarian , and knew what quackery it was . He had been called ' the rising star of Unitarianism . '" He went on defining , or rather refining : " The Trinitarian doctrine was Realism ; the idea of God was not essential , but superessential ; " talked of trinism and tetrakism , and . much more , of which I only caught this , " that the will was that by which a person is a person ; because , if one should push me in the street , and so I should force the man next me into th « kennel , I should at once exclaim , ' I did not do it , sir , ' meaning it was not my-will . " And this also , " that if you should insist on your faith herein England , and I on mine , mine would be the hotter side of the fagot , "

    I took advantage of a pause to say , that he had many readers of all religious opinions in America , and I proceeded to inquire if the ' extract' from the Independent ' s pamphlet , in the third volume of the " Friend , " were a veritable quotation . He replied , that it was really taken from a pamphlet in his possession , entitled , 'A Protest of one of the Independents , ' or something to that effect . I told him how excellent I thouglit it , and how much I wished to see the entire work . " Yes , " he said , " the man was a chaos of truths , but lacked the knowledge that God was a God of order . Yet the passage would no doubt strike you more in the quotation than in the original , for I have filtered it . " Wlien I rose to go , he said , " I do not know wlietlier you care about poetry , but I will xepeat some verses I lately made on my baptismal anniversary , " and he recited with strong emphasis , standing , ten or twelve lines , beginning

    " Born unto God in Christ " I vras in his company for about an hour , but find it impossible to recal the largest part of his discourse , which was often like so many printed paragraphs in his bookperhaps the same ~ -so readily did he fall into certain commonplaces . As I might havo foreseen , the visit was rather a spectacle than a conversation , « f no uso "beyond the satisfaction of my curiosity . He was old and preoccupied , and could not bend to a new companion and think with him . This portrnit , or sketch , of Coleridge , is unlike those most familiar to us ; but it is a photograph of the man in one aspect . How familiar is the sketch ¦ we Lave of the great Carlyle , in his farm of Cnugenputtock : —•

    CARI-YLE . Itwas a farm in Nithsdale , in the parish of Dunscore , sixteen miles distant . No publio coach passed near it , so I took n private carriage from the inn . I found the houso amid desolate heathery hills , where the lonely scholar nourished his mighty heart . Carlylo was a man from his youth , an author who did not need to hide from his readers , and as absolute a man of the world , unknown and exiled on that hill farm , as if holding on hia own terms what ia best in London . Ho was tall and gaunt , with a cliff-like brow , self-possessed , and holding his extraordinary powers of conversation in « asy command ; clinging to his noithorn accent with evident relish ; full of hvcly anecdote , and with a streaming humour , which , floated everything ho looked upon . His talk playfully exalting the familiar objects , put the companion at once into an acquaintance with his Lara nnd Lemurs , and it was very pleasant to learn what was predestined to bo a pretty mythology . Few were the objects and lonely tho man , ' not a person to speale to within sixteen miles except the minister of Dunscoro j so that books inevitably mado his topics . He had names of his own for all the naattcra familiar to his discourse . '

    Blackwood ' s' was the " sand magazine ; " ' FraserV nearer approach to possibility of life was the " mud magazine ; " a piece of road near by that marked some failed enterprise was the " grave of the last sixpence . " When too much praise of any genius annoyed him , he professed hugely to admire the talent shown by his pig . He had spent much time and contrivance in confining the poor beast to one enclosure in his pen , but pig , by great strokes of judgment , had found out how to let a board down , and had foiled him . For all that , he still thought man the most plastic little fellow ia the planet , and he liked Nero ' s death , " Qualis artifexpereo / " better than most history . He worships a man . that will manifest any truth to him . At one time he had inquired aad read a good deal about America . Landor ' s principle was mere rebellion , and tlutt he feared -was the American principle . The best thing he knew of that country was , that in it a man can have meat for his labour . He had read in Stewart ' s book , that when he inquired ia a New York hotel for tLe Boots , he had been shown across the street , and had found Mungo in his own house dining on roast turkey .

    We talked of books . Plato he does not read , and he disparaged Socrates ; and when pressed , persisted in making Mirabeau a hero . Gibbon he called the splendid bridge from the old world to the new . His own reading had been multifarious . ' Tristram Shandy , ' was one of his first books after ' Robinson Crusoe , ' and Robertson ' s ' America , ' an early favourite . Rousseau's ' Confessions' had discovered to him that he was not a dunce ; and it was now ten years since lie had learned German , by the advice of a man who told him he would find in that language what he wanted . He ' took despairing or satirical views of literature at this moment ; recounted the incredible sums paid in one year by the great booksellers for purling . Hence it comes that no newspaper is trusted now , no cooks are bought , and the booksellers ara on the eve of bankruptcy .

    He still returned to English pauperism , the crowded country , the selfish abdication by public men of all that jublic persons should perform . " Government should direct poor men -what to do . Poor Irish folk come wandering over these moors . My dame makes it a rule to give to every son of Adam bread to eat , and supplies his wants to the next house . But her * are thousands of acres which might , give them all meat , and nobody to bid these poor Irish go to the moor and till it . They burned the stacks , and so found a way to force the rich people to attend to them . " We went out to walk over long hills , and looked at Criffel , then without his cap , and down into Wordsworth's country . There we sat down and talked of the immortality of the soul . It was not Carlyle's fault that we talked on that topic , for he had the natural disinclination of every nimble spirit to bruise itself against walls , and did not like to pla . ee himself -where no step can be taken . But he was honest and true , and cognizant of the subtile links" that bind ages together , and saw how everyevent affects all the future . " Christ died on the tree ; that built Dunscore kirk yonder ; that brought you and me together . Time has onlv a relative existence . "

    There is another glimpse of Carlyle in the -visit to Stonehenge , and as of all living Englishmen Carlyle has the most impressed himself upon the minds of his age , influencing even those who are diametrically opposed to him , we may be sure these little personal glimpses will be sought with great interest . SpeaHng of our earnestness , Emerson says : — Theyhave a . horror of adventurers in or out of Parliament . The ruling passion of Englishmen in these days is a terror of humbug , lri the same proportion they value honesty , stoutness , and adherence to your own . They like a man . committed to his objects . They hate the Trench , as frivolous ; they hate the Irish , as aimless ; they hate the Germans , as professors . In February , 1848 , they said , Look , the French Mng and hisparty fell fox want of a shot ; they had not conscience to shoot , so entirely was the pith and heart of monarchy eaten out . _ - _ " . '¦

    They attack their own . politicians every day , on the same grounds as adventurers . They love stoutness in standing for your right , in declining money or promotion that costs any concession . The barrister refuses the silk gown of Queen ' s Counsel , if his junior have it one day earlier . Lord Collingwood would not accept his medal for victory on tie 14 th February , 1797 , if he did not receive one for victory on 1 st June , 1794 ; and the long witbliolden medal was accorded . When Castlereagh dissuaded Lord Wellington from going to the king ' s levee , until the unpopular Cintra business had been explained , he replied , " You furnish me a reason for going . I will go to this , or I will never go to a king ' s levee . " The radical mob at Oxford cried after the Torj ' Lord Eldon , " There ' s old Eldon ; cheer him ; he nev « r ratted . " They have given the parliamentary nickname of Trimmers to the timeaervers , whom English character does not love . And he adds this note : —¦ \ ¦ '

    It is an unlucky moment to remember these sparkles of solitary virtue in the face of the honours lately paid in England to the Emperor Louis Napoleon . I am sure that no Englishman whom I had the happiness to know consented , when the aristocracy and the commons of London cringed like a Neapolitan rabble before a successful thief . Rut—how to resist one atcp , though odious , in a linked series of state necessities ? Governments must always learn too late , that the use of dishonest agents is as ruinous for nations as for single men . Of our constitutional melancholy , or our reputation for melancholy , he says : — I suppose , their gravity of demeanour and their few words have obtained this

    reputation . As compared with the Americans , I think them cheerful and contented . Young people , in this country , are much more 4 gpone to melancholy . The English havo a mild aspect , and a ringing , cheerful voice . They arc large-natured , and not so easily amused as th < s southerners , nnd are among them , as grown people among children , requiring war , or trade , or engineering , or science , instead of frivolous games . They are proud and private , and even if disposed to recreation , will avoid an open garden . They sported sadly ; Us s ' amusaient tristement , tdon la coutume delcur pay $ , said Froiasart ; and , 1 suppose , never nation built their party-walls so thick , or thoir garden-ferxes so high . Meat and wine produce no effect on them : they aro just as cold , quiet , and composed at the end as at the beginning of dinner .

    The reputation of taciturnity they havo enjoyed for six or seven hundred years ; and a kind of pride in fcad public speaking is noted in the Houso of Commons , as if they were willing to show that they did not live by their tongues , or thought they spoke well enough if they had the tone of gentlemen . The only chapter which can be called satirical is the one on Religion , and it is difficult indeed to ppealc of religion in England without ridicule or indignation : — , ' The curates arc ill-paid , and the prelates aro overpaid . This abuse draws into the Church the children of the nobility , and other unfit persons , who havo a tasto for expense . Thus a bishop is only a surpliccd merchant . Through hialawn I can sco the bright buttons of tho shopman ' s coat glitter . A wealth like that of Durham makes almost a premium on felony . Brougham , in a Bpcech in tho House of Commons on the Irish elective franchise , said , " How will the reverend bishops of tho other house bo able to express their due abhorrence of the crime of perjury , who solemnly declare

    Skptembeir, 13,1856.] The Leader. 881

    Skptembeir , 13 , 1856 . ] THE LEADER . 881

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 13, 1856, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13091856/page/17/