360 i'HILOsOFHlCAL NOTES OK 



" Carlyle was one of the first men in England to recognize the importance 



of German literature His translation of 'Wilhelm Meister' was 



published in 1824, and his noble essay on Goethe in 1S32 The 



editor, for whom he wrote it, reported that all the opinions he could gajther 

 about this essay Avere * eminently unfavourable.' De Quincey, Avho of all 

 English critics was believed to know Germany best, and Jeflfre^ , who exercised 

 the greatest influence on English literary opinion, combined to depreciate or 

 ridicule Goethe. But there is now no educated man who disputes that 

 Carlyle in this matter was essentially right, and that his critics were whollj- 

 wrong." — " Carlyle's Message to his Age," by W. E. H. Lecky, Contemp. 

 Rev., Oct. 1891.— Such is the value of authority. 



