378 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF 



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, i that was " the Miracle." ' 

 There was in Annandale a second Thomas Carlyle, 

 wbose 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 

 Marburg, I had been one morning startled by the in- 

 telligence that Thomas Carlyle, der Englcinder, 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 

 distinguished Greek scholar and a pious man, had just 

 joined the Irvingites j 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 

 Athenoeum Club Mr. (now Sir Mountstuart) GJ-rant- 

 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 

 this was an error. From my own direct questionings I 

 had learned that the feelings of the old man were those 

 of gratitude rather than of dislike. At a time when 



