“Perhaps his course for the present year, which was on Hero-worship, was better attended than any previous one.  Some of those who were present estimated the average attendance at three hundred.  They chiefly consisted of persons of rank and wealth, as the number of carriages which each day waited the conclusion of the lecture to receive Mr. Carlyle’s auditors, and to carry them to their homes, conclusively testified.  The locality of Mr. Carlyle’s lectures has, I believe, varied every year.  The Hanover Rooms, Willis’s Rooms, and a place in the north of London, the name of which I forget, have severally been chosen as the place whence to give utterance to his profound and original trains of thought.

“A few words will be expected here as to Mr. Carlyle’s manner as a lecturer.  In so far as his mere manner is concerned, I can scarcely bestow on him a word of commendation.  There is something in his manner which, if I may use a rather quaint term, must seem very uncouth to London audiences of the most respectable class, accustomed as they are to the polished deportment[A] which is usually exhibited in Willis’s or the Hanover Rooms.  When he enters the room, and proceeds to the sort of rostrum whence he delivers his lectures, he is, according to the usual practice in such cases, generally received with applause; but he very rarely takes any more notice of the mark of approbation thus bestowed upon him, than if he were altogether unconscious of it.  And the same seeming want of respect for his audience, or, at any rate, the same disregard for what I believe he considers the troublesome forms of politeness, is visible at the commencement of his lecture.  Having ascended his desk, he gives a hearty rub to his hands, and plunges at once into his subject.  He reads very closely, which, indeed, must be expected, considering the nature of the topics which he undertakes to discuss.  He is not prodigal of gesture with his arms or body; but there is something in his eye and countenance which indicates great earnestness of purpose, and the most intense interest in his subject. You can almost fancy, in some of his more enthusiastic and energetic moments, that you see his inmost soul in his face.  At times, indeed very often, he so unnaturally distorts his features, as to give to his countenance a very unpleasant expression.  On such occasions, you would imagine that he was suddenly seized with some violent paroxysms of pain. He is one of the most ungraceful speakers I have ever heard address a public assemblage of persons.  In addition to the awkwardness of his general manner, he ‘makes mouths,’ which would of themselves be sufficient to mar the agreeableness of his delivery.  And his manner of speaking, and the ungracefulness of his gesticulation, are greatly aggravated by his strong Scotch accent.  Even to the generality of Scotchmen his pronunciation is harsh in no ordinary degree.  Need I say, then, what it must be to an English ear?