CARLYLE. g 



was wholly void of that shaping imagination which is the 

 highest criterion of a poet. 



Immediate popularity and lasting fame, then, would seem 

 to be the result of different qualities, and not of mere differ 

 ence in degree. It is safe to prophesy a certain durability of 

 recognition for any author who gives evidence of intellectual 

 force, in whatever kind, above the average amount. There 

 are names in literary history which are only names; and the 

 works associated with them, like Acts of Congress already 

 agreed on in debate, are read by their titles and passed. 

 What is it that insures what may be called living fame, so 

 that a book shall be at once famous and read-? What is it 

 that relegates divine Cowley to that remote, uncivil Pontus 

 of the British Poets/ and keeps garrulous Pepys within the 

 cheery circle of the evening lamp and fire ? Originality, 

 eloquence, sense, imagination, not one of them is enough by 

 itself, but only in some happy mixture and proportion. Ima 

 gination seems to possess in itself more of the antiseptic 

 property than any other single quality; but, without less 

 showy and more substantial allies, it can at best give only 

 deathlessness, without the perpetual youth that makes it 

 other than dreary. It were easy to find examples of this 

 Tithonus immortality, setting its victims apart from both 

 gods and men ; helpless duration, undying, to be sure, but 

 sapless and voiceless also, and long ago deserted by the 

 fickle Hemera. And yet chance could confer that gift on 

 Glaucus, which love and the consent of Zeus failed to secure 

 for the darling of the Dawn. Is it mere luck, then ? Luck 

 may, and often does, have some share in ephemeral suc 

 cesses, as in a gambler s winnings spent as soon as got, but 

 not in any lasting triumph over time. Solid success must be 

 based on solid qualities and the hnnpst mlhire nf form. 



ilie first element of contemporary popularity is undoubt 

 edly the power of entertaining. If a man have anything to 

 tell, the world cannot be expected to listen to him unless he 

 have perfected himself in the best way of telling it. People 

 are not to be argued into a pleasurable sensation, nor is taste 

 to be compelled by any syllogism, however stringent. An 

 author may make himself very popular^ however, and even 

 justly so, by appealing to the passion of the moment, without 

 having anything in him that shall outlast the public whim 

 which he satisfies. Churchill is a remarkable example of 



