CARLYLE. 117 



stantial 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 1 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 un 

 doubtedly 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 this. He had a surprising extemporary vigor of 

 mind ; his phrase carries great weight of blow ; he un 

 doubtedly surpassed all contemporaries, as Cowper says 

 of him, in a certain rude and earth-born vigor ; but his 

 verse is dust and ashes now, solemnly inurned, of course, 

 in the Chalmers columbarium, and without danger of 

 violation. His brawn and muscle are fading traditions, 

 while the fragile, shivering genius of Cowper is still a 

 good life on the books of the Critical Insurance Office. 

 " Is it not, then, loftiness of mind that puts one by the 



