A SUNDAY IN CHEYNE BOW. 277 



ters whether such stuff be of this sort or of that, so 

 the form thou give it be heroic, be poetic ? " Car- 

 lyle's watchword through life, as I have said, was the 

 German word Entsagen, or renunciation. The per- 

 fect flower of religion opens in the soul only when 

 all self-seeking is abandoned. The divine, the heroic 

 attitude is : "I ask not Heaven, I fear not Hell ; I 

 crave the truth alone, whithersoever it may lead." 

 " Truth ! I cried, though the heavens crush me for 

 following her; no falsehood, though a celestial lub- 

 berland 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 ? " Mo- 

 ses cried, When, O 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 

 religious belief or opinion could he tolerate. He 

 abandoned 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, 



