eau, 'as a sweet and precious
ignorance, the treasure of a pure soul at peace with itself, which
finds all its blessedness in inward retreat, in testifying to itself
its own innocence, and which feels no need of seeking a warped and
hollow happiness in the opinion of other people as to its
enlightenment?']

Most men will now agree that when the great fiery trial came, the
Emersonian faith and the democratic assumption abundantly justified
themselves. Even Carlyle wrote to Emerson at last (June 4, 1871): 'In my
occasional explosions against Anarchy, and my inextinguishable hatred of
_it_, I privately whisper to myself, "Could any Friedrich Wilhelm now,
or Friedrich, or most perfect Governor you could hope to realise, guide
forward what is America's essential task at present, faster or more
completely than 'Anarchic America' is now doing?" Such "Anarchy" has a
great deal to say for itself.'

The traits of comparison between Carlyle and Emerson may be regarded as
having been pretty nearly exhausted for the present, until time has
changed the point of view. In wit, humour, pathos, penetration, poetic
grandeur, and fervid sublimity of imagination, Carlyle is the superior
beyond measure. But Emerson is as much his superior in that high and
transparent sanity, which is not further removed from midsummer madness
than it is from a terrene and grovelling mediocrity. This sanity, among
other things, kept Emerson in line with the ruling tendencies of his
age, and his teaching brings all the aid that abstract teaching can,
towards the solution of the moral problems of modern societies. Carlyle
chose to fling himself headlong and blindfold athwart the great currents
of things, against all the forces and elements that are pushing modern
societies forward. Beginning in his earlier work with the same faith as
Emerson in leading instincts, he came to dream that the only leading
instinct worth thinking about is that of self-will, mastery, force, and
violent strength. Emerson was for basing the health of a modern
commonwealth on the only real strength, and the only kind of force that
can be relied upon, namely, the honest, manly, simple, and emancipated
character of the citizen. This gives to his doctrine a hold and a prize
on the work of the day, and makes him our helper. Carlyle's perverse
reaction had wrecked and stranded him when the world came to ask him for
direction. In spite of his resplendent genius, he had no direction to
give,