134 CARLYLE. 



otherwise. Frederick II. left the machine of war which 

 he received from his father even more perfect than he 

 found it, yet within a few years of his death it went to 

 pieces before the shock of French armies animated by an 

 idea. Again a few years, and the Prussian soldiery, in- 

 spired once more by the old national fervor, were victori- 

 ous. Were it not for the purely picturesque bias of 

 Mr. Carlyle's genius, for the necessity which his epical 

 treatment lays upon him of always having a protagonist, 

 we should be astonished that an idealist like him should 

 have so little faith in ideas and so much in matter. 



Mr. Carlyle's manner is not so well suited to the histo- 

 rian as to the essayist. He is always great in single 

 figures and striking episodes, but there is neither grada- 

 tion nor continuity. He has extraordinary patience and 

 conscientiousness in the gathering and sifting of his 

 material, but is scornful of commonplace facts and char- 

 acters, impatient of whatever will not serve for one of his 

 clever sketches, or group well in a more elaborate figure- 

 piece. He sees history, as it were, by flashes of light- 

 ning. A single scene, whether a landscape or an inte- 

 rior, a single figure or a wild mob of men, whatever may 

 be snatched by the eye in that instant of intense illumi- 

 nation, is minutely photographed upon the memory. 

 Every tree and stone, almost every blade of grass ; every 

 article of furniture in a room ; the attitude or expression, 

 nay, the very buttons and shoe-ties of a principal figure ; 

 the gestures of momentary passion in a wild throng, 

 everything leaps into vision under that sudden glare 

 with a painful distinctness that leaves the retina quiver- 

 ing. The intervals are absolute darkness. Mr. Carlyle 

 makes us acquainted with the isolated spot where we 

 happen to be when the flash comes, as if by actual eye- 

 sight, but there is no possibility of a comprehensive 

 view. No other writer compares with him for vividness. 



