1 62 CARLYLE. 



The gold of the poet must be refined, moulded, stamped 

 with the image and superscription of his time, but with 

 a beauty of design and finish that are of no time. The 

 work must surpass the material. Wordsworth 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 difference 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 &amp;lt; \ What is it that relegates divine Cowley to that 

 remote, uncivil Pontus of the &quot;British Poets,&quot; 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. Imagination 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 dura 

 tion, 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 successes, 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 honest culture of them. 



The first element of contemporary popularity is undoubt- 



