The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 306 pages of information about The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II..

The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 306 pages of information about The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II..
solid, dark, broad, rather heavy man; full of energy, and broad sagacity and practicality;—­infinitely well affected to the man Emerson too.  It was our clear opinion that you might come at any time with ample assurance of “succeeding,” so far as wages went, and otherwise; that you ought to come, and must, and would,—­as he, Ireland, would farther write to you.  There is only one thing I have to add of my own, and beg you to bear in mind,—­a date merely. Videlicet, That the time for lecturing to the London West-End, I was given everywhere to understand, is from the latter end of April (or say April altogether) to the end of May: this is a fixed Statistic fact, all men told me:  of this you are in all arrangements to keep mind.  For it will actually do your heart good to look into the faces, and speak into minds, of really Aristocratic Persons,—­ being one yourself, you Sinner,—­and perhaps indeed this will be the greatest of all the novelties that await you in your voyage.  Not to be seen, I believe, at least never seen by me in any perfection, except in London only.  From April to the end of May; during those weeks you must be here, and free:  remember that date.  Will you come in Winter then, next Winter,—­or when?  Ireland professed to know you by the Photograph too; which I never yet can.—­I wrote by last Packet:  enough here.  Your friend Cunningham has not presented himself; shall be right welcome when he does,—­as all that in the least belong to you may well hope to be.  Adieu.  Our love to you all.

Ever Yours,
         T. Carlyle

CXX.  Emerson to Carlyle

Concord, 30 April, 1847

My Dear Carlyle,—­I have two good letters from you, and until now you have had no acknowledgment.  Especially I ought to have told you how much pleasure your noble invitation in March gave me.  This pleasing dream of going to England dances before me sometimes.  It would be, I then fancy, that stimulation which my capricious, languid, and languescent study needs.  At home, no man makes any proper demand on me, and the audience I address is a handful of men and women too widely scattered than that they can dictate to me that which they are justly entitled to say.  Whether supercilious or respectful, they do not say anything that can be heard.  Of course, I have only myself to please, and my work is slighted as soon as it has lost its first attraction.  It is to be hoped, if one should cross the sea, that the terror of your English culture would scare the most desultory of Yankees into precision and fidelity; and perhaps I am not yet too old to be animated by what would have seemed to my youth a proud privilege.  If you shall fright me into labor and concentration, I shall win my game; for I can well afford to pay any price to get my work well done.  For the rest, I hesitate, of course, to rush rudely on persons that have been so long invisible angels to me.  No reasonable man but must hold these bounds in awe:—­I—­ much more,—­who am of a solitary habit, from my childhood until now.—­I hear nothing again from Mr. Ireland.  So I will let the English Voyage hang as an afternoon rainbow in the East, and mind my apples and pears for the present.

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The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II. from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.