THIS WEEK'S GREAT DAY

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 31, 7 February 1927, Page 6

THIS WEEK'S GREAT DAY

FEB. 6.—DEATH OF THOMAS

CARLYLE. ! (By CHARLES CONWAY.) Forty-six years ago, on February 6, ISSI. Thomas Carlyle, one of the greatest "of British philosophers and historians, died at the'age of 86. He was born 011 December 4, 1795, at Ecclefechan in Scotland, where his father earned his livelihood as a stone mason. He was the eldest of nine children, and received his early education at local schools, where he showed such a great aptitude for. learning that his father determined to have him trained for the ministry. At the age of 14 he travelled on foot to Edinburgh, a distance of ninety miles, and entered the University, where he remained until he was 19. He then became a schoolmaster and continued his studies for the ministry, but at the end of five years he abandoned the idea of entering the Church, and took up the study of law, which was in turn abandoned for literature. The Tailor Patched. His first literary work, a series of articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, was followed by several tran>lations from the German, and a life of Schiller. in 1526 lie married, and for the next eight years lived on a small estate belonging to his wife at Dumfries, where he wrote the first of his great works, -Sartor Kesartus," which did not prove a financial success. He removed to London in 18.'J4 and took up his residence in a house at Chelsea, which remained his home until his death 47 years later. '1 here he immediately commenced the most famous of his works, "The French Kevojution," the first volume of which was completed within five months, but, having lent the manuscript to John Stuart Mill, it was destroyed by a careless servant, and the work had to* be re-written, which delayed the publication until lS.'i7. It was a great success and established Carlyle as the foremost literary man of the da v. llis subsequent writings and lectures added to his reputation, and in ISol lie commenced the lengthiest of his books, " Frederick the Great," which occupied him for fourteen years and necessitated two journeys to Germany to gather material. Neglectful and Inconsiderate. In 1566 he suffered a severe blow in the sudden death of his wife, and his grief was acccntuatcd by the discovery of a diary, in which she had recorded how greatly she had suffered, unknown to liini, from the neglect and want of consideration which owing to absorption iu his work and other causes he had unconsciously shown towards her. He was overpowered by his loss, which rendered him incapable of work, and six years later his health began to fail, and his right "hand became paralysed. In 1574 he was presented with the Prussian Order of Merit as a recognition of his splendid biography of its founder, and in the same year the British Government offered him a baronetcy and a pension, both of which he refused. In accordance with his dying instructions he was laid to rest with his parents in the churchyard at Eeelefechan, although there was a strong desire that his genius should be honoured with interment in Westminster Abbey. Carlyle exercised a profound influence on the thought of his age, not only by his brilliant writings and personality, but also through the many distinguished men whom he imbued with his ideas and doctrines. 11 is house at Chelsea was acquired by the nation and fitted up as a museum, in which are to be seen many interesting relics of the great man, including the soundproof room which he built on the roof for the purpose of seclusion when writing. On one occasion Lord Tennyson visited him at Chelsea, and the two geniuses sat in front of the kitchen re, smoking clay pipes, for a long time without exchanging a word, and afterwards each declared the other to have been a most congenial and interesting companion.