320 The Philosophy of Thomas Carlyle . [June, 
Prayer — as Carlyle virtually admits— is an aspiration to- 
wards the “ Type of Perfect ” in ourselves, which is not 
impaired by the recognition of its subjective character. The 
feeling of immortality is in like manner independent of any 
acTual future existence, and explained in part by our incapa- 
city of conceiving any future event without tacitly positing 
ourselves as present spectators, — in part by that sense of 
immutable Continuity of Time and Space, unaffected by the 
succession of superficial impressions, which is experienced 
by all constant and concentrated minds.* The one absorbing 
subject of meditation is a fixed centre, which alone seems 
real, while the play and change of perceptions, whence we 
extract the notion of Time, is an illusive dream. “ Thus, 
while eliminating the chimera of resurrection from the dead, 
and a sense of personal identity in other states of being, 
reason provides a complete substitute in the idea of immor- 
tality possessed by us in our present bodies. ”t 
The two modes, already indicated, in which philosophers 
have sought to obey the injunction “ Know thyself ,” are 
strikingly typified by the two modern thinkers, Carlyle and 
Darwin. The former indeed repudiated that maxim, in 
words though not in spirit, substituting for it “ Know what 
thou canst work at but he was ever seeking to solve the 
higher problem of self-knowledge, and at last came vainly 
to imagine that its solution was in his hands. The intensity 
and the genius with which this belief was enforced are 
beyond all question, and the honesty with which it was held, 
spite of certain painful misgivings, is equally unmistakable. 
Yet it will scarcely be denied that this self-anointed prophet 
failed in his high mission. His converts to a virtually un- 
intelligible and incoherent mysticism were at best equivocal, 
and perhaps he has left behind not one thoroughly assured 
disciple. He was a portent in the skies for a season ; but 
* This truth would be more generally recognised, but for that suspension of 
the laws of morality and common sense, as well as of physics, which seems 
to take place in the domain of the Supernatural. An illustration may be found 
in an anecdote related by Miss Martineau of Mr. W. E. Forster, the late con- 
scientious and able Chief Secretary for Ireland. In her last letter to Mr. 
Atkinson (so honourably distinguished as a fearless advocate of the cause of 
reason and liberty of thought) she writes, “ I well remember the passion with 
which W. E. Forster said to me ‘ I had rather be damned than annihilated.’ 
If (she adds) he once felt five minutes’ damnation, he would be thankful for 
extinction in preference.” Further comment on what may be called the moral 
insanity thus displayed by an otherwise high-minded man is superfluous. 
f Life and Mind on the Basis [of Modern Medicine, by Robert Lewins, 
M D. 
X A formula evidently plagiarised from Goethe’s ‘ Do the thing that lie 
next you. 
