Thomas Carlyle to GHL, London, 3 November 1855
Title
Thomas Carlyle to GHL, London, 3 November 1855
Title
Thomas Carlyle to GHL, London, 3 November 1855
Sender
Thomas Carlyle
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1855-11-03
Place
London
Letter Content
Thomas Carlyle to GHL, London, 3 November 1855
MS: Yale.
Chelsea, 3 November 1855.
Dear Lewes,
I am sorry to hear you still complain of health; bad health is a very miserable adjunct to one's burden, though not an uncommon one to poor wretches of this craft! Festina lent'e8: don't work too much (which proves always too little by and by): that is the one way of procuring some abatement, if abolition of the misery is not possible.
I know your clean finger in The Leader weekly as heretofore; one of the few writing fingers of this epoch which are not dog's paws, or cloven hoofs of mere human swine. Pah! --
Furthermore I got the Goethe the other night, almost at the same time with your Note. Every night since, in my reading hours, I am dashing athwart it in every direction; truanting; for I w[on]t wait a time to read the work with such deliberation as I well see it deserves. My conviction is, we have here got an excellent Biography, -- altogether transcendently so, as Biographies are done in this country. Candid, well-informed, clear, free-flowing, it will certainly throw a large flood of light over Goethe's life, with many German things which multitudes in England have been curious about, to little purpose, for a long while. It ought to have a large circulation, if one can predict or anticipate in regard to such matters. On the whole, I say Euge, and that heartily, -- though dissenting here and there. I ought also to be thankful, and am, for the fine manful words you have seen good to say about my poor self: 268 good words go about too, as well as evil; -- and all words go to nothing except they be the copies of things:
Denn geschw'e4rzig sind die Zeiten, Und sie sind auch wieder stumm.
Ach Gott ja, most dumb indeed; -- and we read with pain, in M. Thiers and the like, femme alors cel'e8bre, homme alors etc.
I returned from my wanderings, which never went very wide, some three or four weeks ago; and am here in my garret, again, up to the chin in Brandenburg naval stores; uncertain whether I shall not sink dead, and be buried under them, one day; but struggling to hope not.
Once more, Well-done, and thanks; and let me see you soon.
Yours always truly
T. Carlyle.
MS: Yale.
Chelsea, 3 November 1855.
Dear Lewes,
I am sorry to hear you still complain of health; bad health is a very miserable adjunct to one's burden, though not an uncommon one to poor wretches of this craft! Festina lent'e8: don't work too much (which proves always too little by and by): that is the one way of procuring some abatement, if abolition of the misery is not possible.
I know your clean finger in The Leader weekly as heretofore; one of the few writing fingers of this epoch which are not dog's paws, or cloven hoofs of mere human swine. Pah! --
Furthermore I got the Goethe the other night, almost at the same time with your Note. Every night since, in my reading hours, I am dashing athwart it in every direction; truanting; for I w[on]t wait a time to read the work with such deliberation as I well see it deserves. My conviction is, we have here got an excellent Biography, -- altogether transcendently so, as Biographies are done in this country. Candid, well-informed, clear, free-flowing, it will certainly throw a large flood of light over Goethe's life, with many German things which multitudes in England have been curious about, to little purpose, for a long while. It ought to have a large circulation, if one can predict or anticipate in regard to such matters. On the whole, I say Euge, and that heartily, -- though dissenting here and there. I ought also to be thankful, and am, for the fine manful words you have seen good to say about my poor self: 268 good words go about too, as well as evil; -- and all words go to nothing except they be the copies of things:
Denn geschw'e4rzig sind die Zeiten, Und sie sind auch wieder stumm.
Ach Gott ja, most dumb indeed; -- and we read with pain, in M. Thiers and the like, femme alors cel'e8bre, homme alors etc.
I returned from my wanderings, which never went very wide, some three or four weeks ago; and am here in my garret, again, up to the chin in Brandenburg naval stores; uncertain whether I shall not sink dead, and be buried under them, one day; but struggling to hope not.
Once more, Well-done, and thanks; and let me see you soon.
Yours always truly
T. Carlyle.
Signature
T. Carlyle.
Citation
Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle to GHL, London, 3 November 1855, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/95605