A SUNDAY IN GHEYNE ROW 251 



sure-footed Eternities. "The times are bad; very 

 well, you are there to make them better." "The 

 public highways ought not to be occupied by people 

 demonstrating that motion is impossible. " (" Chart- 

 ism. ") 



III 

 Caroline Fox, in her "Memoirs of Old Friends," 

 reports a smart saying about Carlyle, current in her 

 time, which has been current in some form or other 

 ever since; namely, that he had a large capital of 

 faith uninvested, — carried it about him as ready 

 money, I suppose, working capital. It is certainly 

 true that it was not locked up in any of the various 

 social and religious safe -deposits. He employed a 

 vast deal of it in his daily work. It took not a 

 little to set Cromwell up, and Frederick. Indeed, 

 it is doubtful if among his contemporaries there 

 was a man with so active a faith, — so little invested 

 in paper securities. His religion, as a present liv- 

 ing reality, went with him into every question. 

 He did not believe that the Maker of this universe 

 had retired from business, or that he was merely a 

 sleeping partner in the concern. "Original sin," 

 he says, "and such like are bad enough, I doubt 

 not; but distilled sin, dark ignorance, stupidity, 

 dark corn-law, bastile and company, what are they 1 " 

 For creeds, theories, philosophies, plans for reform- 

 ing the world, etc., he cared nothing, he would 

 not invest one moment in them; but the hero, the 

 worker, the doer, justice, veracity, courage, these 

 drew him, — in these he put his faith. What to 



