174 CARLYLE. 



hallucination that he is head-master of this huge boys 

 school which we call the world, his pedagogic birch has 

 grown to the taller proportions and more ominous aspect of 

 a gallows. His article on Dr. Francia was a panegyric of 

 the halter, in which the gratitude of mankind is invoked 

 for the self-appointed dictator who had discovered in 

 Paraguay a tree more beneficent than that which produced 

 the Jesuit s bark. Mr. Oarlyle seems to be in the condition 

 of a man who uses stimulants, and must increase his dose 

 from day to day as the senses become dulled under the 

 spur. He began by admiring strength of character and 

 purpose, and the manly self-denial which makes a humble 

 fortune great by steadfast loyalty to duty. He has gone 

 on till mere strength has become such washy weakness that 

 there is no longer any titillation in it ; and nothing short 

 of downright violence will rouse his nerves now to the 

 needed excitement. At first he made out very well with 

 remarkable men ; then, lessening the water and increasing 

 the spirit, he took to Heroes ; and now he must have 

 downright inhumanity, or the draught has no savour; so 

 he gets on at last to Kings, types of remorseless Force, 

 who maintain the political views of Berserkers by the legal 

 principles of Lynch. Constitutional monarchy is a failure, 

 representative government is a gabble, democracy a birth of 

 the bottomless pit \ there is no hope for mankind except in 

 getting themselves under a good driver who shall not spare 

 the lash. And yet, unhappily for us, these drivers are 

 providential births not to be contrived by any cunning of 

 ours, and Friedrich II. is hitherto the last of them. Mean 

 while the world s wheels have got fairly stalled in mire and 

 other matter of every vilest consistency and disgustful 

 smell. What are we to do 1 ? -Mr. Carlyle will not let us 

 make a lever with a rail from the next fence, or call in the 

 neighbours. That would be too commonplace and cowardly, 

 too anarchical. No ; he would have us sit down beside 

 him in the slough, and shout lustily for Hercules. If that 

 indispensable demigod will not or cannot come, we can find 

 a useful and instructive solace, during the intervals of 



