THE ESSAYIST.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 2 August 1913, Page 9

THE ESSAYIST.

MRS CARLYLE AS LETTERWRITER.

CAUSTIC COMMENTS

Incidents of every-day li'_ „i- e described with delightful fi_sh%S of wit and quaint phrases in an interesting collection of hitherto _npw_lished letters from Mrs Carlyle. to Sier intimate friend. Miss Kate St/_rliirg. The letters, which were written from th© Carlyles' house in Cheyne Row between 1849 and 1856, have been preserved in Miss Kate "Sterling's family. Miss Sterling became Mrs Ross, and the letters have new been lent to the London Library by her daughter, Mrs W. H. Woodward. They are written on unstamped writing paper in the thin, precise writing of tbe period, and show more emotion than would have been expected (says the Express) from the girl Jane Welsh, whose love letters to Thomas Carlyle in their youth were masterpieces of businesslike logic. THE LESSON OF LIFE. Th experience accumulated during a married life that was none too happy is summed up in a sad little message to her friend short!}- before the latter's marriage to Mr Ross : — After all, I have never found the least good myself in what others say to us, either for comfort or edification! One must work out for oneself every every lesson of life. . . Ah! Heaven, Yes! Haven't I, for •example, been privileged for the last quarter of a century to hear "The Greatest Thinker of the Age" denouncing the sins and shortcomings of the world the first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, and have I hated and despised the world's ways a bit the more for all that? In this almost impassioned sentence lies the only inkling the letters contain that those who live with the ..great may sometimes become satiated with greatness. RUSKIN. The letters are full of domestic chatter—expressions of affection 'for her friend and scraps of social news which are delightful, as, for instance, the following description of an Incident at a society function: — At a huge soiree at Bath House last night . . . we took with us, at Lady A.'s request, Mr Ruskin, and considering how people have stared at that aiian ever since he had the happiness to be divorced by his wife, I displayed, I think, a certain force of mind in taking his arm to go in instead of Mr Carlyle's, and getting myself announced "Mrs Carlyle and Mr Ruskin T" How terribly ill-hred people are as a general mile'! A BISHOP OF EDINBURGH. In another letter there is a gentle little sarcasm levelled at the good Bishop of. Edinburgh in the following passage:— The Bishop of Edinburgh, when I was a girl, wrote some verses for my special behoof, or rather reproof, on the occasion of some violent weeping I had transacted in parting from—not himself—somebody else—l really forget who. Some tragedy apparently connected with the lack of an umbrella on a rainy day is the occasion for another letter which shows Mrs Carlyle's deep affection for her friend. Darling,—No letter from you or fiom anyone else was ever welcomer. I was not expecting it. I had taken leave of you, Kate Sterling, that day when I opened the door for you and . you walked out into the rain without ] an umbrella. I had returned to the fire to take a good cry because I should see and hear mo more of you till you should reappear from over the horizon as Mrs Ross, and did I know whether I should like Mrs Ross as well as I had liked Kate Sterling? EXPENSIVE. Here is a story showing a bygone 'consideration which loomed .large in [ the calculations of the thrifty when tolLgates were in their prime: — | Now I will tell you a story. When Lord Lyndhurst's first wife died old Cro'ker put on a long face and a black coat and went to condole with his lordship. His lordship received his condolence with due solemnity, and said ii* a heart-stricken tone: —"My dear "Croker, be kind to your wife while she is with you. Oh, my dear fellow, love her and cherish while she is alive, but —when she dies—don't bury her in the . country, for it has cost me fifty pom.ds for turnpikes, by God!"