130 CAELYLE. 



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 as- 

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

 panegyric of the haltei', in which the gratitude of man- 

 kind is invoked for the self-appointed dictator who had 

 discovered in Paraguay a tree more beneficent than that 

 which produced the Jesuits' bark. Mr. Carlyle 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 

 streng-th 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 

 titillatiou' 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 j then, 

 lessening the water and increasing the spirit, he took to 

 Heroes : and now he must have downright inhumanity, 

 or the draught has no savor ; — 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, represen- 

 tative 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 cun- 

 ning of ours, and Friedrich IT. is hitherto the last of 

 them. Meanwhile the world's wheels have got fairly 

 stalled in mire and other matter of every vilest consist- 

 ency and most disgustful smell. What are we to dol 

 Mr. Carlyle will not let us make a lever with a rail from 

 the next fence, or call in the neighbors. That woidd be 



