348 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 



There are amongst us eminent men who knew Carlyle 

 longer, and who saw him oftener, than I did whose 

 store of memories is therefore far larger than mine. 

 But it was my fortune, during some of the most im- 

 pressive phases of his life, to be very close to him ; and 

 though my visits to his home in Chelsea, and our com- 

 mon rambles in London and elsewhere, were, to my 

 present keen regret, far fewer than either of us wished 

 them to be, they gave me some knowledge of his inner life 

 and character. Better however than in any formal record, 

 that life is to be sought and found in his imperishable 

 works. There we best see the storm of his passion, the 

 depth of his pity, the vastness of his knowledge his 

 humour, his tenderness, his wisdom, his strength. As 

 long as men continue capable of appreciating what is 

 highest in literary achievement, these works must hold 

 their own. 



When, before a group of distinguished and stead- 

 fast friends, the statue of Carlyle was unveiled on the 

 Thames Embankment, I briefly referred to my first 

 acquaintance with his works. ' Past and Present,' the 

 astonishing product of seven weeks' fierce labour in the 

 early part of the year, was published in 1843; and 

 soon after its publication I met some extracts from the 

 work in the Preston newspapers. I chanced, indeed, 

 to be an eye-witness of the misery which at that time 

 so profoundly moved Carlyle. With their hands in 

 their pockets, with nothing in their stomachs, but 

 with silent despair fermenting in their hearts, the 

 ' hunger-stricken, pallid, yellow-coloured ' weavers of 

 Preston and the neighbourhood stalked moodily through 

 the streets. Their discontent rose at length to riot, 

 and some of them were shot down. Such were the 

 circumstances under which Carlyle appealed to Exeter 



