teen years of solitary toil,
which, in his own words, "made entire devastation of home life and
happiness." The proudest moment of his life was when he was elected to
succeed Gladstone as lord rector of Edinburgh University, in 1865, the year
in which _Frederick the Great_ was finished. In the midst of his triumph,
and while he was in Scotland to deliver his inaugural address, his
happiness was suddenly destroyed by the death of his wife,--a terrible
blow, from which he never recovered. He lived on for fifteen years, shorn
of his strength and interest in life; and his closing hours were like the
dull sunset of a November day. Only as we remember his grief and remorse at
the death of the companion who had shared his toil but not his triumph, can
we understand the sorrow that pervades the pages of his _Reminiscences_. He
died in 1881, and at his own wish was buried, not in Westminster Abbey, but
among his humble kinsfolk in Ecclefechan. However much we may differ from
his philosophy or regret the harshness of his minor works, we shall
probably all agree in this sentiment from one of his own letters,--that the
object of all his struggle and writing was "that men should find out and
believe the truth, and match their lives to it."

WORKS OF CARLYLE. There are two widely different judgments of Carlyle as a
man and a writer. The first, which is founded largely on his minor
writings, like _Chartism, Latter-Day Pamphlets_, and _Shooting Niagara_,
declares that he is a misanthrope and dyspeptic with a barbarous style of
writing; that he denounces progress, democracy, science, America, Darwin,
--everybody and everything that he does not understand; that his literary
opinions are largely prejudices; that he began as a prophet and ended as a
scold; and that in denouncing shams of every sort he was something of a
sham himself, since his practice was not in accord with his own preaching.
The second judgment, which is founded upon _Heroes and Hero Worship,
Cromwell_, and _Sartor Resartus_, declares that these works are the supreme
manifestation of genius; that their rugged, picturesque style makes others
look feeble or colorless by comparison; and that the author is the greatest
teacher, leader, and prophet of the nineteenth century.

Somewhere between these two extremes will be found the truth about Carlyle.
We only note here that, while there are some grounds for the first
unfavorable criticism, we are to judge an author by his best