lived familiarly with the people of the glen. Old Mac Ian, who had before felt many misgivings as to the relation in which he stood to the government, seems to have been pleased with the visit. The officers passed much of their time with him and his family. The long evenings were cheerfully spent by the peat fire with the help of some packs of cards which had found their way to that remote corner of the world, and of some French brandy which was probably part of James' farewell gift to his Highland supporters. Glenlyon appeared to be warmly attached to his niece and her husband Alexander. Every day he came to their house to take his morning draught. Meanwhile he observed with minute attention all the avenues by which, when the signal for the slaughter should be given, the Macdonalds might attempt to escape to the hills; and he reported the result of his observations to Hamilton. .

'The night was rough. Hamilton and his troops made slow progress, and were long after their time. While they were contending with the wind and snow, Glenlyon was supping and playing at cards with those whom he meant to butcher before daybreak. He and Lieutenant Lindsay had engaged themselves to dine with the old Chief on the morrow.

Late in the evening a vague suspicion that some evil was intended crossed the mind of the Chief's eldest son. The soldiers were evidently in a restless state; and some of them uttered strange exclamations. Two men, it is said, were overheard whispering. "I do not like this job," one of them muttered; “I should be glad to fight the Macdonalds. But to kill men in their beds-" "We must do as we are bid," answered another voice. "If there is anything wrong, our officers must answer for it." John Macdonald was so uneasy, that, soon after midnight, he went to Glenlyon's quarters. Glenlyon and his men were all up, and seemed to be getting their arms ready for action. John, much alarmed, asked what these preparations meant. Glenlyon was profuse of friendly assurances. "Some of Glengarry's people have been harrying the country. We are getting ready to march against them. You are quite safe. Do you think that, if you were in any danger, I should not have given a hint to your brother Sandy and his wife?" John's suspicions were quieted. He returned to his house, and lay down to rest.'1 On the next day, at five in the morning, the old chieftain was assassinated, his men shot in their beds or by the fireside. Women were butchered; a boy, twelve years old, who begged his life on his knees, was slain; they who fled half-naked, women and children, died of cold and hunger in the snow.

These precise details, these soldiers' conversations, this picture of evenings by the fireside, give to history the animation and life of a novel. And still the historian remains an orator: for he has chosen all these facts to exhibit the perfidy of the assassins and the horrible nature of the massacre; and he will make use of them later on, to demand, with all the power and passion of logic, the punishment of the criminals.

VIII.

Thus this History, whose qualities seem so little English, bears throughout the mark of a genuinely English talent. Universal, con

1 Macaulay, iii. 526; History of England, ch. xviii.

nected, it embraces all the facts in its vast, undivided, and unbroken woof. Developed, abundant, it enlightens obscure facts, and opens to the most ignorant the most complicated questions. Interesting, varied, it attracts and preserves the attention. It has life, clearness, unity, qualities which appear to be wholly French. It seems as if the author were a populariser like Thiers, a philosopher like Guizot, an artist like Thierry. The truth is, that he is an orator, and that after the fashion of his country; but, as he possesses in the highest degree the oratorical faculties, and possesses them with a national tendency and instincts, he seems to supplement through them the faculties which he has not. He is not genuinely philosophical: the mediocrity of his earlier chapters on the ancient history of England proves this sufficiently; but his force of reasoning, his habits of classification and order, bestow unity upon his History. He is not a genuine artist: when he draws a picture, he is always thinking of proving something; he inserts dissertations in the most interesting and touching places; he has neither grace, lightness, vivacity, nor refinement, but a marvellous memory, vast knowledge, an ardent political passion, a great legal talent for expounding and pleading every cause, a precise knowledge of precise and petty facts which rivet the attention, charm, diversify, animate, and warm a narrative. He is not simply a populariser; he is too ardent, too eager to prove, to conquer belief, to beat down his foes, to have only the limpid talent of a man who explains and expounds, with no other end than to explain and expound, which spreads light throughout, and never spreads heat; but he is so well provided with details and reasons, so anxious to convince, so rich in developments, that he cannot fail to be popular. By this breadth of knowledge, this power of reasoning and passion, he has produced one of the finest books of the age, whilst manifesting the genius of his nation. This solidity, this energy, this deep political passion, these moral prejudices, these oratorical habits, this limited philosophical power, this partially uniform style, without flexibility or sweetness, this eternal gravity, this geometrical progress to a settled end, announce in him the English mind. But if he is English to the French, he is not so to his nation. The animation, interest, clearness, unity of his narrative, astonish them. They think him brilliant, rapid, bold; it is, they say, a French mind. Doubtless he is so in many respects: if he understands Racine badly, he admires Pascal and Bossuet; his friends say that he used daily to read Madame de Sévigné. Nay more, by the structure of his mind, by his eloquence and rhetoric, he is Latin; so that the inner structure of his talent places him amongst the classics: it is only by his lively appreciation of special, complex, and sensible facts, by his energy and rudeness, by the rather heavy richness of his imagination, by the depth of his colouring, that he belongs to his race. Like Addison and Burke, he resembles a strange graft, fed and transformed by the sap of the national stock. At all events, this judgment is

VOL. II.

2 E

the strongest mark of the difference between the two nations. To reach the English intellect, a Frenchman must make two voyages. When he has crossed the first interval, which is wide, he comes upon Macaulay. Let him re-embark; he must accomplish a second passage, just as long, to arrive at Carlyle for instance,-a mind fundamentally Germanic, on the genuine English soil.

CHAPTER IV.

Philosophy and History.-Carlyle.

§ 1.-STYLE AND MIND.

ECCENTRIC AND IMPORTANT POSITION OF CARLYLE IN ENGLAND.

I. His strangenesses, obscurities, violence-Fancy and enthusiasm-Rudeness and buffooneries.

II. Humour-Wherein it consists-It is Germanic-Grotesque and tragic pictures - Dandies and Poor Slaves - The Pigs' Catechism-Extreme tension of his mind and nerves.

III. Barriers which hold and direct him-Perception of the real and of the sublime.

IV. His passion for exact and demonstrated fact-His search after extinguished feelings Vehemence of his emotion and sympathy-Intensity of belief and vision-Past and Present-Cromwell's Letters and Speeches-Historical mysticism-Grandeur and sadness of his visions-How he represents the world after his own mind.

V. Every object is a group, and every employment of human thought is the reproduction of a group-Two principal modes of reproducing it, and two principal modes of mind-Classification-Intuition-Inconvenience of the second process-It is obscure, hazardous, destitute of proofsIt tends to affectation and exaggeration - Hardness and presumption which it provokes-Advantages of this kind of mind-Alone capable of reproducing the object-Most favourable to original invention-The use made of it by Carlyle.

§ 2. VOCATION.

INTRODUCTION OF GERMAN IDEAS IN EUROPE AND ENGLAND-GERMAN STUDIES OF

CARLYLE.

I. Appearance of original forms of mind-How they act and result-Artistic genius of the Renaissance-Oratorical genius of the classic age--Philosophical genius of the modern age-Probable analogy of the three ages. II. Wherein consists the modern and German form of mind-How the aptitude for universal ideas has renewed the science of language, mythology, æsthetics, history, exegesis, theology, and metaphysics-How the metaphysical bent has transformed poetry.

III. Capital idea derived thence-Conception of essential and complementary parts-New conception of nature and man.

IV. Inconvenience of this aptitude-Gratuitous hypothesis and vague abstraction -Transient discredit of German speculations.

V. How each nation may re-forge them-Ancient examples: Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-The Puritans and Jansenists in the

seventeenth century-France in the eighteenth century-By what roads

these ideas may enter France-Positivism-Criticism.

VI. By what roads these ideas may enter England-Exact and positive mindImpassioned and poetic inspiration-Road followed by Carlyle.

§ 3.-PHILOSOPHY, MORALITY, AND CRITICISM.

HIS METHOD IS MORAL, NOT SCIENTIFIC-WHEREIN HE RESEMBLES THE PURITANS

-SARTOR RESARTUS.

I. Sensible things are but appearances-Divine and mysterious character of existence-His metaphysics.

II. How we may form into one another, positive, poetic, spiritualistic, and mystical ideas-How in Carlyle German metaphysics are altered into English Puritanism.

III. Moral character of this mysticism-Conception of duty-Conception of God. IV. Conception of Christianity-Genuine and conventional Christianity-Other religions-Limit and scope of doctrine.

V. Criticism-What weight it gives to writers-What class of writers it exalts -What class of writers it depreciates-His æsthetics-His judgment of Voltaire.

VI. Future of criticism-Wherein it is contrary to the prejudices of the age and of its vocation-Taste has but a relative authority.

§ 4.-CONCEPTION OF HISTORY.

I. Supreme importance of great men-They are revealers-They must be venerated.

II. Connection between this and the German conception-Wherein Carlyle is imitative-Wherein he is original-Scope of his conception.

III. How genuine history is that of heroic sentiments-Genuine historians are artists and psychologists.

IV. His history of Cromwell-Why it is only composed of texts connected by a commentary-Its novelty and worth-How we should consider Cromwell and the Puritans-Importance of Puritanism in modern civilisa. tion-Carlyle admires it unreservedly.

V. His history of the French Revolution Severity of his judgment-Wherein he has sight of the truth, and wherein he is unjust.

VI. His judgment of modern England-Against the taste for comfort and the lukewarmness of convictions-Gloomy forebodings for the future of modern democracy Against the authority of votes-Monarchical theory. VII. Criticism of these theories-Dangers of enthusiasm-Comparison of Carlyle and Macaulay.

WH

HEN you ask Englishmen, especially those under forty, who amongst them are the thinking men, they first mention Carlyle ; but at the same time they advise you not to read him, warning you that you will not understand him at all. Then, of course, we hasten to get the twenty volumes of Carlyle-criticism, history, pamphlets, fantasies, philosophy; we read them with very strange emotions, contradicting every morning our opinion of the night before.