Show CARLYLE LEFT CUAIGKNPUTTOCK With much hesitation and reluctance Carlyle came to London His motive and reasons may be found set forthwith forth-with ample fullness in his letters and Reminiscences Over all these lies the persistent determination not to > be of London to be in i but not part of i The effect is picturesque and full of fine moral contrasts but London was greater than he True she wanted want-ed him but he must come to her not she to him The prophetic strains sent forth from the seclusion of Craigen puttock fell faintly on a small audience l audi-ence issuing from London they struck the ear of the universe Nowhere have the sentiments of the comer to London been set forth with such accuracy and insight as in many passages scattered over Carlyles letters In seeking merely to describe the house near the New river in Upper Clerkenwell where he visited Irving he depicts the very atmosphere and character of the neighborhood An hour in Kensington gardens gives rise to a subtle picture of the place He saw London with the poets eye looking look-ing beneath the obvious and realizing the wondrous life and movement forever for-ever in action He called London a modern Babylon a turgid stream of ignoble life and many other hard I names That was the protest of a proud mind which held itself aloof But still she drew him He came remained re-mained and was of her With lavish liberality she has laid Chelsea at his u feet as a offering to his memory for 4 all time Ecclefechan possesses his mortal remains but these she does not grudge who holds the record of fifty Chambers years Journal of his immortal activity |