AUCKLAND CATHOLIC LITERARY SOCIETY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 25, 20 October 1893, Page 19

AUCKLAND CATHOLIC LITERARY SOCIETY.

On the 10th inst a very interesting paper on Carlyle, Gladstone, and Beaconefield was read before this Society by Mr Maophersoo, M.A. The president, Mr E. Moloney, in the chair. There were presentRev Father Hackett, Adm, and a large number of ladies and gentlemen,

The paper gave a minute description of Thomas Carlyle's career, tracing him from his boyhood journey, at 14 years of ag«, on foot froTD Ecc'.efechan.in Dumfrieehire to the Metropolitan University of Scotland, ia Edinburgh, where he had passed some seven sessions as a student. Oarlyle at first was intended by his peasant parent* for the vocation of the Chinch, but discovering that the profession of letters was more to bis liking hf , when very young — scarcely oat of his teens-gramme need writing to the magazines as a litterateur. But as that craft was a poor look oat for a man of ambition and genius, Carlyle, meeting Jeannie Welsh, a lady with a small fortune, settled down as a benedict in the moorland home of Craigenpattock • Dumfriesshire — a small farm the property of his wife. That arrange* ment chased the wolf from the door and enabled Oarlyle to todnre heroically the disappointmaot* and drawbacks incident to a tyro in literary effort who had not yet made a name for himself. The surroundings of a peat bog moor were a bit dismal to a dyspeptic liver, and as he pined for the society of his fellows he soon hied him away to London, where for some 40 yesrs or mors he lived in his snug retreat in Chayne row, Chelsea. Very soon after oomin? to the capital he attracted to himself the interest, if not the admiration and affection, of quite an array of literary savants, including such men as Leigh Hunt, Charles Lamb, Coleridge, and many others who were glad to listen to the ioagh Doric of the erstwhile Allandale lad now strangely metamorphosed into a queer combination of cynic, philosopher, and that unknown quantity, described by a Scotch Lowlander whose ideas and vernacular had been saperadded to by a good slice of the nomenclature peculiar to oertain Teutonic professors. Anyhow, in " Sartor Resartaß,"O*rlyle's first great work, that phenomenon is seen par excellence. At first no publisher would have anything to do with it, They even declined to examine the MS., bat ultimately hii pertinacions Scotch patience was rewarded by Fraser's Magazine taking it up and forthwith the whilom, shaggy-looking, big-boned Scottish laddie rose one morning and, like Byron, found himself famous. Tbat was bis first stroke of good luck. By-and-bye he attained complete sway in the London literary salons and at a party was the cynosure of all eyes and did the lion's share of the talking. The papers brought in evidence bis different stages until bis return as Lord Rector of his alma mater when he delivered his memorable address in that capacity to the University student?. The essayist ds c cribed very vividly the tout ensemble on tbat occasion when Carlyle, accompanied by a galaxy of illustrious visitors from Great Britainjand the continent, had made his appearance before an audience of some five thousand people and had hushed ever rowdy students into Btnpor and awe as they for the first time beheld his visage. All the salient features of the address were touched on, as also the memorable exit when he was serenaded to bis carriage and taking off his hat bade them a last farewell. Carlyle was next exhibited in his domestic life, and how strangely he comported himself in the society of his wife. Several amasing anecdotes were related of how things went with him in days when bis liver was oat of sorts, as, for example, his behaviour to the German visitor whom ha had frightened out of his presence by his scowling face and stentorian notes of rage. The paper next reviewed the significance of Carlyle as a man amongst brilliant oompeere, of whom be was the acknowledged master, and even such men as Tennyson, Btuart Mill, Buskin, Herbert Spenoer, &c, were glad to sit at bis feet. The essayist also dealt in a very able manner with the other portions of his subject, embracing the careers of Disraeli and Gladstone.