ME. CARLYLE AT EDINBURGH.

Press, Volume X, Issue 1143, 7 July 1866, Page 2

ME. CARLYLE AT EDINBURGH.

[Frora the " Examiner."] Mr Carlyle's address on Monday to the students of the University Oi Edinburgh, upon hia insfcaljatwii as Lord Eector, waa an hour and ft*ww; characteristic talk in the way o». counsel.and suggestions, thus-intro-duced:— ~'■■■. On rising to address thei student, having thrown off'hie robe, he came to the table amid loud cheers. WM the etorm of applause had BUDsifioa. he said—Gentlemen,, I have a«Jcop«J the office you have elected mc have now the duty to retuniibaflW for the great honor done mc. enthusiasm towards mc, I admit, »» very beautiful in itself, however utf£ served it may be in regard to m» object of it. It is a feeling to all men, and one well known to myself when 1 was in a P* analogous to your own. I can ouj hope that it may endure to the .end -that noble -desire to honor tho* whom you think worthy «* « " andthatyou to be mo J and more select and discriminate w the choice of the object ot iV can well understand that you ««f modify your opinions ot mc m.»W things else aa you go ou. , we "now fifty-Bk r~*l/™ t d November smee 1 * uX ?ito your city, a boy ?f ...***«£. tend classes here, and gam * * h of all kinds, I know not feelings of wonder pectation;andnowafterajaß|°. course, this is what we have cobw

rr]7Bomo thin & touching and tragic, "Krfftt the same time beautiful, to * nd *n third generation, as it were, of «* w old native land, rising up and my. deA „ Well you are not altogether laborer in the v inyard; anUQ We toiled through a great ?°" £ at fortunes, and have had ra " et7 «id£res." As tho old proverb mm7 "He that builds by the wayside f y many masters." We must expect but the voice of * u»" Scotland, through you, w really y flme value to mc; and I return you ?S 'my emotions to you, and, iT « they will be much more conP tble if expressed in silence. When L of you know that I was not very tbitious to accept it at first. I was hfto believe that there were Sin more or less important duties SB would lie in my power. Tins, I «nfese was my chief motive in going • in reconciling the Sections I felt to such thing*; for if Jβ* do anything to honor you and Wear old j/ we J/ater, why should lint do so ? Well,but on practically looking into the matter when Z office actually came into my tT ds I fin 0 * ** g rows more and more and abstruse to mc whether Sis much real duty that I can do t 11 I Hve 400 miles away from fouinaa entirely different state of thinw and my weak health—now for many years accumulating upon meand total unacquaintance with such subiects as concern your affairs hereall this fills mc with apprehension that there is really nothing worth the least consideration that I can do on that score You may, however, depend upon it tbat if any such duty does arise m any form, I will use my most faithful endeavor to do whatever is right and proper, according to the best of my Judgment. In the meanwhile, the duty I have at present—which might be very pleasant, but which is quite the reverse, as you may fancy—is to address some words to you on some subjects more or less cognate to the pursuits you are engaged in. In fact, I hadineant to throw out some loose observations—loose in point of order I mean—in such 'a way as they may occur to me—the thoughts I have in mc about ,$&, business you are engaged in, the race you have started on, what "kind- of race it is you young gentlemen have begun, and what sort of *rsaayouare likely to find in this world. I ought, I believe, according to custom, to have written all that down - oilpaper, and had it read out. '(flat.would' have been much handier f&r mc at the present moment —but *hen I attempted to write, I found that I was not accustomed to write speeches, and that I did not get on very well. So I flung that away, and resolved to trust to the inspiration of the moment—just to what came uppermost. You will therefore have to accept what is readiest—what comes direct from the heart j and you must just take that m compensation for any good order or arrangement there might have been in it. I will endeavour to cay nothing that is not true as far as I can. manage, and that ia pretty much all that I can engage for. From the rest of the address we take a few suggestive passages— HONEST STUDY. If you will believe mc, you who are pung, yours is the golden season, of life. As you have heard it called, so it verily is—the seed-time of life, in which, if you do not sow, or if you bow tares instead of wheat you cannot expect to reap well afterwards, and you will arrive at little indeed; while, in the course of years, when you come to look, back, if you have not done what you have heard from your advisers—arid among many counsellors there is "wisdom, — you will bitterly repent when it is too late. The habits of afcudy acquired at universities are of the'liighest importance in. after life. At the season when you are young in years the whole mind is as it were, fluid, and is; capable of forming itself into any shape that the owner of the mind pleases to let it or order ifc to form itself into. The mind ie. in ii-fluid state, but it hardens up gtadualiy to. the consistency of rock or and you cannot alter the habits of an old man; for as he has begun he Jill proceed and go on to the last. By diligence I mean among other things —and very chiefly—l mean honesty in all your inquiries into what you are about. Pursue your studies in the way your .conscience calls honest. More and more endeavor to do that. &®ep, I mean to say, an accurate between what you have ™?lf com© to know in your own ™s and what is still unknown, we all that on the hypothetical side «>ae barrier, as things afterwards to °c acquired if acquired at all; and be careful not to stamp a thing as known when you do not yet know it. Count a Hung known.only when it is stamped oayoarinincl, so that you may survey «ouall sides with intelligence. There j 8 such a thing as a mail endeavoring w> persuade himself, and endeavoring l Q persuade others, that he knows JHHmt things, when he does not know wore than the outside skin of them, fJWyet he goes flourishing about with em, . There ss also a process called JJJJWg in some universities—that is, getting up auck poiuts of th i ngs ag tne examiner is likely to put questions •Wufc Avoid all that as entirely of an honorable mind. Be ™°mt, and humble, and diligent in » attention to what your teachers eayou, who are profoundly interested r?J? mg to brin S y°u forward in the "gat way, so far as they have been able it. Try all things they 7L Ore y° u > ia ora er, if possible, to them, and to follow them SK O^ 01 * t0 y° ur fifcues^for them - see what kind of work you £.7 J for it is the first of all probof^/°u£ mailto find out what kind ork he m to do in this universe.