204 FRESH FIELDS 



mous fund of tenderness and magnanimity. He 

 was full of contempt for the mass of mankind, but 

 he was capable of loving particular men with a 

 depth and an intensity that more than makes the 

 account good. And let me say here that the saving 

 feature about Carlyle's contempt, which is such a 

 stumbling-block till one has come to understand it, 

 is its perfect sincerity and inevitableness, and the 

 real humility in which it has its root. He cannot 

 help it; it is genuine, and has a kind of felicity. 

 Then there is no malice or ill-will in it, but pity 

 rather, and pity springs from love. We also know 

 that he is always dominated by the inexorable con- 

 science, and that the standard by which he tries men 

 is the standard of absolute rectitude and worthiness. 

 Contempt without love and humility begets a sneer- 

 ing, mocking, deriding habit of mind, which was 

 far enough from Carlyle's sorrowing denunciations. 

 "The quantity of sorrow he has, does it not mean 

 withal the quantity of sympathy he has, the quan- 

 tity of faculty and victory he shall yet have ? ' Our 

 sorrow is the inverted image of our nobleness.' 

 The depth of our despair measures what capability, 

 and height of claim we have, to hope." (Crom- 

 well.) Emerson heard many responding voices, 

 touched and won many hearts, but Carlyle was 

 probably admired and feared more than he was 

 loved, and love he needed and valued above all else. 

 Hence his pathetic appeals to Emerson, the one 

 man he felt sure of, the one voice that reached him 

 and moved him among his contemporaries. He felt 



