A SUNDAY IN CHEYNE ROW 257 



crush me for following her; no falsehood, though 

 a celestial lubberland were the price of apostasy." 

 The truth, — what is the truth ? Carlyle answers : 

 That which you believe with all your soul and all 

 your might and all your strength, and are ready to 

 face Tophet for, — that, for you, is the truth. 

 Such a seeker was he himself. It matters little 

 whether we agree that he found it or not. The 

 law of this universe is such that where the love, 

 the desire, is perfect and supreme, the truth is 

 already found. That is the truth, not the letter 

 but the spirit; the seeker and the sought are one. 

 Can you by searching find out God ? " Moses cried, 

 'When, Lord, shall I find thee-? God said. 

 Know that when thou hast sought thou hast already 

 found me. '" This is Carlyle's position, so far as 

 it can be defined. He hated dogma as he hated 

 poison. No direct or dogmatic statement of reli- 

 gious belief or opinion could he tolerate. He aban- 

 doned the church, for which his father designed 

 him, because of his inexorable artistic sense; he 

 could not endure the dogma that the church rested 

 upon, the pedestal of clay upon which the golden 

 image was reared. The gold he held to, as do all 

 serious souls, but the dogma of clay he quickly 

 dropped. "Whatever becomes of us," he said, 

 referring to this subject in a letter to a friend when 

 he was in his twenty-third year, "never let us 

 cease to behave like honest men." 



