236 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xvi 



in the world, 25,000,000 rising up and saying " by the 

 Almighty God we will put an end to these shams." He 

 also talked of the frightful difficulty of rewriting the 1st 

 vol. when the manuscript had been burnt; he said it was 

 the hardest job he had ever had, that he had not a scrap 

 of note or reference of any kind and it was like trying to 

 float in the air without any wings, or some metaphor to 

 that effect. He also said that he thought at one time 

 that he should have gone mad with all the horror and 

 mystery of the world and his own difficulties, if he had 

 not come across Goethe. Unfortunately he did not clearly 

 explain and I missed what he said in the rumble of the 

 carriage. He said that Goethe always carried about with 

 him a feeling of the perplexity of things and of the misery 

 of the world, ... so I said that Goethe had not felt the 

 French Revolution anything to the extent that he had, and 

 then he smiled and said that was true, and afterwards he 

 said that Goethe had always been prosperous, while he had 

 had to struggle with money difficulties. . . . He said that 

 Goethe was far the greatest [man] living in his times, that he 

 was very kind to him, and that every three months or so a 

 box of curiosities, books, &c. used to come to him to Scot- 

 land. He spoke with real sorrow in his voice that want of 

 money had prevented him ever seeing Goethe. He said that 

 " Goethe believed he should live again " and that he used to 

 write to him openly [on the subject]; when his son died of 

 drinking at Rome, all he said was that " his son had stayed 

 behind in the Eternal City." 



Carlyle talked about Newman being made Cardinal 

 and said he was a kind, affectionate man, who was much 

 afraid of damnation and hoped to creep into heaven under 

 the Pope's petticoats, and then he added " but he has no 

 occiput," and it is very true that Woollier s bust shows he 

 has no back to his head. 



I asked him if he ever read any of his own works 

 again, and he said he had read his Frederick all through, 

 and seemed to have enjoyed it. As we came away he 

 asked after my father, and said with a grin, " but the origin 



