160 INDOOE STUDIES 



fulness, hopefulness, benevolence, etc. These he 

 shared with the mass of his countrymen. The 

 American temperament is sanguine and turns con- 

 fidently to the future. But it is again his heroic 

 temper, his faith in " the ideal tendencies, " in the 

 value of personal force and character, in the gran- 

 deur of the present moment, the present opportu- 

 nity; a temper he shares vs^ith but few, but shares, 

 say, with his friend and master, Carlyle : — 



" One equal temper of heroic hearts; " 

 and more especially in Carlyle 's case, 



" Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 

 To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." 



It has long been clear to me that Carlyle and 

 Emerson were in many important respects closely 

 akin, notwithstanding the wrath and melancholy of 

 the one, and the serenity and hopefulness of the 

 other. Their main ground of kinship is the heroic 

 sentiment which they share in common. Their 

 effects upon the mind are essentially the same : both 

 have the "tart cathartic virtue " of courage and self- 

 reliance; both nourish character and spur genius. 

 Carlyle does not communicate the gloom he feels; 

 'tis the most tonic despair to be found in literature. 

 There is a kind of felicity in it. For one thing, it 

 sprang from no personal disappointment or selfish- 

 ness. It always has the heroic tinge. In a letter 

 to Emerson he refers to it as a "kind of imperial 

 sorrow that is almost like felicity, — so completely 

 and composedly wretched, one is equal to the very 

 gods," His wretchedness was a kind of sorrow; 



