THOMAS CARLYLE. 459 



FOREIGN HONORARY MEMBERS. 



THOMAS CARLYLE. 



The death of Mr. Carltle takes from the roll of our Foreign Hon- 

 orary Members one whose genius received its first confident recogni- 

 tion in our own city, and whose influence during the whole period of 

 his literary career was felt not less widely, or less powerfully, in this 

 country than in his own. In losing him, English literature in the 

 nineteenth century loses its most conspicuous figure. 



The roots of his vigorous nature struck deep in his native soil. 

 His most mai'ked qualities, both moral and intellectual, grew fi'om a 

 sturdy stock. His ancestry were of the best humble Scotch blood. 

 The account which he has given of his home in his Memoir of his 

 Father is the counterpart of the picture of domestic simplicity and 

 piety in Burns's " Cotter's Saturday Night." The old ti-adition of 

 Scotch manliness and godliness survived with full force in him. The 

 stern integrity, the strict sincerity, the confident independence of the 

 Protestantism of Scotland formed the foundations of his character. 

 He held substantially through his long life to the faith of his fathers, 

 under a changed form, but with little change of essential principle. 



To a clear intelligence and a strong understanding were united in 

 him rare gifts of perception, of humor, and of imagination, and all 

 were subordinated to a deep moral sentiment. The exceptionally 

 definite individuality of his temperament and genius displayed itself 

 not infrequently in what seemed like wilfulness of opinion, and in 

 actual exaggeration of utterance, which hindered the recognition of 

 the morality that lay behind. But this prevailing moral sense gave 

 real consistency to his judgments, and informed the body of his teach- 

 ing from first to last with a single sjjirit. 



It has been often charged against him, especially of late, that the 

 sum of his social doctrine is expressed in the aphorism that " might 

 makes right." But the charge has no truth. His doctrine, as he 

 himself asserted, and as all who have more than a superficial ac- 

 quaintance with his work will admit, is precisely the reverse of this. 

 " Right makes might," is the lesson he enforces. The only real might 

 is moral. Cromwell, Frederick, the here, whoever he may be, exer- 

 cises authority in virtue of a moral claim. All power that asserts any 

 other than a moral validity is contrary to the permanent order of 

 society, is transient, is self-destructive. In the application of this 



