378 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 



Carlyle might be expected to handle; the style is, to 

 some extent, that with which we are so well acquainted, 

 still, the book is one which nobody, knowing Carlyle, 

 could suppose him to have written at any period of his 

 life." I went down to Chelsea next day, and made 

 inquiries about the authorship of the volume. " Oh," 

 said Carlyle with a laugh, " that was ' the Miracle.' " 

 There was in Annandale a second Thomas Carlyle, 

 whose cleverness, when a youth, caused him to be looked 

 upon as a prodigy. Both he and the other Thomas 

 sent from time to time mathematical questions to 

 a local newspaper, and answered them mutually. Here 

 Carlyle's extraordinary memory and narrative power 

 came into play. He ran some centuries back, struck 

 into " the Miracle's " family history, and traced it to 

 that hour. While studying at the University of Mar- 

 burg, I had been one morning startled by the intelli- 

 gence that Thomas Carlyle, der Engldnder, had arrived 

 in that historic town. On inquiry, however, I found 

 that it was not my Carlyle, but Carlyle the Irvingite, 

 who had come on a visit to Professor Thiersch. It was, 

 in fact, "the Miracle." The Professor, a very dis- 

 tinguished Greek scholar and a pious man, had just 

 joined the Irvingites ; hence the visit of " the Miracle." 

 Carlyle spoke with feeling regarding what he considered 

 to be the decadence and spiritual waste of his namesake 

 and competitor, who, when he came to Marburg, had, I 

 was told, the rank and function of an " Apostle." 



An event, important in its relation to Carlyle's 

 memory, is to be noted here. Meeting one day in the 

 Athenaeum Club Mr. (now Sir Mountstuart) Grant- 

 Duff, he informed me that an accomplished American 

 friend of his was very anxious to know Carlyle, but 

 that he was held back by the notion that Carlyle dis- 

 liked Americans. I was able to say upon the spot that 



