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reverence. The young man had seen him come in 

 summer and stand, with uncovered head, beside the 

 graves of his father and mother. "And long and 

 reverently did he remain there, too," said the young 

 gardener. I learned this was Carlyle's invariable 

 custom : every summer did he make a pilgrimage to 

 this spot, and with bared head linger beside these 

 graves. The last time he came, which was a couple 

 of years before he died, he was so feeble that two per- 

 sons sustained him while he walked into the cemetery. 

 This observance recalls a passage from his " Past and 

 Present." Speaking of the religious custom of the 

 Emperor of China, he says, " He and his three hun- 

 dred millions (it is their chief punctuality) visit yearly 

 the Tombs of their Fathers ; each man the Tomb of 

 his Father and his Mother; alone there in silence 

 with what of * worship ' or of other thought there may 

 be, pauses solemnly each man ; the divine Skies all 

 silent over him ; the divine Graves, and this divinest 

 Grave, all silent under him ; the pulsings of his own 

 soul, if he have any soul, alone audible. Truly it may 

 be a kind of worship ! Truly, if a man cannot get 

 some glimpse into the Eternities, looking through this 

 portal, through what other need he try it ? " 



Carlyle's reverence and affection for his kindred 

 were among his most beautiful traits, and make up 

 in some measure for the contempt he felt toward the 

 rest of mankind. The family stamp was never more 

 strongly set upon a man, and no family ever had a 

 more original, deeply cut pattern than that of the 



