CARLYLE. 149 



stance runs out through any hole that criticism may 

 tear in them, but Carlyle's are so real in comparison, 

 that, if you prick them, they bleed. He seems a little 

 wearied, here and there, in his Friedrich, with the mul 

 tiplicity of detail, and does his filling-in rather shabbily ; 

 but he still remains in his own way, like his hero, the 

 Only, and such episodes as that of Voltaire would make 

 the fortune of any other writer. Though not the safest 

 of guides in politics or practical philosophy, his value as 

 an inspirer and awakener cannot be over-estimated. It 

 is a power which belongs only to the highest order of 

 minds, for it is none but a divine fire that can so kindle 

 and irradiate. The debt due him from those who lis 

 tened to the teachings of his prime for revealing to them 

 what sublime reserves of power even the humblest may 

 find in manliness, sincerity, and self-reliance, can be paid 

 with nothing short of reverential gratitude. As a puri 

 fier of the sources whence our intellectual inspiration is 

 drawn, his influence has been second only to that of 

 Wordsworth, if even to his. 



