THOMAS CAELYLE. 349 



Hall, with its schemes of beneficence for aborigines 

 far away. ' These yellow-coloured for the present 

 absorb all my sympathies. If I had a twenty millions 

 with model farms and Niger expeditions, it is to them 

 I would give it.' Under the same circumstances he 

 warned his ' Corn-lawing friends ' that they were driving 

 into the frenzy of Socialism 'every thinking man in 

 England.' With my memory of the Preston riots still 

 vivid, I procured ' Past and Present,' and read it per- 

 severingly. It was far from easy reading ; but I found 

 in it strokes of descriptive power unequalled in my 

 experience, and thrills of electric splendour which 

 carried me enthusiastically on. I found in it, more- 

 over, in political matters, a morality so righteous, a 

 radicalism so high, reasonable, and humane, as to make 

 it clear to me that without truckling to the ape and 

 tiger of the mob, a man might hold the views of a 

 radical. 



The first perusal of the work gave me but broken 

 gleams of its scope and aim. I therefore read it a 

 second time, and a third. At each successive reading 

 my grasp of the writer's views became stronger and 

 my vision clearer. But even three readings did not 

 satisfy me. After the last of them, I collected econo- 

 mically some old sheets of foolscap, and wrote out 

 thereupon an analytical summary of every chapter. 

 When the work was finished I tied the loose sheets 

 together with a bit of twine and stowed them away. 



For many years they remained hidden from me. I 

 had passed through the rail way madness of the 'forties,' 

 emerging sane from the delirium. I had studied in 

 Germany, had lectured at the Koyal Institution, and 

 in 1853 had been appointed its Professor of Natural 

 Philosophy. For fifteen years I had enjoyed the 

 friendship of Faraday, whose noble and illustrious life 



