GARDENS OF CELEBRITIES 
Carlyle, than I formerly possessed. The ‘‘ New Letters and 
Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle’? are calculated, as intended, 
to raise still higher the reader’s opinion of Thomas Carlyle; but. 
I think that, in vindicating the philosopher in his Introduction, 
Sir James Crichton-Browne is not infrequently unjust to Mrs. 
Carlyle. ‘‘ The course of true love never did run smooth,” which 
applies equally to married, and unmarried lovers. These two 
gifted people were genuinely devoted. Who can read the letters 
that passed between them to the end of their long, wedded lives, 
letters never intended for the eye of the public, and doubt it? 
But, unluckily for perfect harmony, they were temperamentally 
too much alike. Both were highly-strung; victims of a peculiarity 
of physical and mental organization that influenced their thoughts 
and actions; both were emotional, and, unfortunately, equally 
endowed with hot tempers, as well as mental gifts. Here perhaps 
the resemblance between them ended, for the character of their 
mentality, and their outlook, and aspirations, were different. 
Mrs. Carlyle longed for children and she was childless ; his children 
were the offspring of his genius. She herself was not without the 
ambition, and, as her letters show, the capacity, to excel in litera- 
ture; yet she generously and cheerfully immolated her talents 
in that direction on the altar of her husband’s genius, ‘‘ because,”’ 
says Froude, “‘ she honoured his character, she gloried-in his fame, 
and she was sure of his affection.”” She was the first to recognize 
the merit of ‘‘ The French Revolution,” and it is touching, as well 
as amusing, to find her celebrating its accomplishment by treating 
him to a bread pudding, of which he remarks, ‘‘ he consumed it 
with an appetite got by walking far and wide.” 
Although sufficiently capable in business affairs, Carlyle was at 
heart a mystic. ‘‘ The word God,” says Froude, ‘‘ was too awful 
for common use, and he veiled his feelings in metaphor to avoid 
it.” On the other hand, Mrs. Carlyle was eminently practical ; 
an excellent and active housekeeper, who, even with the narrow 
means at her disposal, made light of domestic difficulties that. 
would have appalled most women brought up as she had been, 
in comparative ease and luxury. No one, we are assured, calling 
at Cheyne Row in the days of their poverty, could have told 
whether the Carlyles were rich or poor. The house was well- 
furnished, the drawing-room even elegant. The little garden at. 
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