130 CAELYLE. 



hallucination that he is head-master of this huge boys' 

 school which we call the world, his pedagogic birch has 

 grown to the taller proportions and more ominous as- 

 pect of a gallows. His article on Dr. Francia was a 

 panegyric of the halter, in which the gratitude of man- 

 kind is invoked for the self-appointed dictator who had 

 discovered in Paraguay a tree more beneficent than that 

 which produced the Jesuits' bark. Mr. Carlyle seems to 

 be in the condition of a man who uses stimulants, and 

 must increase his dose from day to day as the senses 

 become dulled under the spur. He began by admiring 

 strength of character and purpose, and the manly self- 

 denial which makes a humble fortune great by steadfast 

 loyalty to duty. He has gone on till mere strength has 

 become such washy weakness that there is no longer any 

 titillation in it ; and nothing short of downright violence 

 will rouse his nerves now to the needed excitement. At 

 first he made out very well with remarkable men ; then, 

 lessening the water and increasing the spirit, he took to 

 Heroes : and now he must have downright inhumanity, 

 or the draught has no savor ; — so he gets on at last to 

 Kings, types of remorseless Force, who maintain the 

 political views of Berserkers by the legal principles of 

 Lynch. Constitutional monarchy is a failure, represen- 

 tative government is a gabble, democracy a birth of the 

 bottomless pit ; there is no hope for mankind except in 

 getting themselves under a good driver who shall not 

 spare the lash. And yet, unhappily for us, these drivers 

 are providential births not to be contrived by any cun- 

 ning of ours, and Friedrich II. is hitherto the last of 

 them. Meanwhile the world's wheels have got fairly 

 stalled in mire and other matter of every vilest consist- 

 ency and most disgustful smell. What are we to do 1 ! 

 Mr. Carlyle will not let us make a lever with a rail from 

 the next fence, or call in the neighbors. That would be 



