er
Cromwell, whose Life he thought of writing. His lectures at this period
were more successful than ever, attended by great and fashionable
people; and from them his chief income was derived.

While collecting materials for his Life of Cromwell, Carlyle became
deeply interested in the movements of the Chartists, composed chiefly of
working-men with socialistic tendencies. He was called a "radical,"--and
he did believe in a radical reform of men's lives, especially of the
upper classes who showed but little sympathy for the poor. He was not
satisfied with the Whigs, who believed that the Reform Bill would usher
in a political millennium. He had more sympathy with the "conservative"
Tories than the "liberal" Whigs; but his opinions were not acceptable to
either of the great political parties. They alike distrusted him. Even
Mill had a year before declined an article on the working classes for
his Review, the Westminster. Carlyle took it to Lockhart of the
Quarterly, but Lockhart was afraid to publish it. Mill, then about to
leave the Westminster, wished to insert it as a final shout; but Carlyle
declined, and in 1839 expanded his article into a book called
"Chartism," which was rapidly sold and loudly noticed. It gave but
little satisfaction, however. It offended the conservatives by exposing
sores that could not be healed, while on the other hand the radicals did
not wish to be told that men were far from being equal,--that in fact
they were very unequal; and that society could not be advanced by
debating clubs or economical theories, but only by gifted individuals as
instruments of Divine Providence, guiding mankind by their
superior wisdom.

These views were expanded in a new course of lectures, on "Heroes and
Hero Worship," and subsequently printed,--the most able and suggestive
of all Carlyle's lectures, delivered in the spring of 1840 with great
_eclat_. He never appeared on the platform again. Lecturing, as we have
said, was not to his taste; he preferred to earn his living by his pen,
and his writings had now begun to yield a comfortable support. He
received on account of them L400 from America alone, thanks to the
influence of his friend Emerson.

Carlyle now began to weary of the distraction of London life, and pined
for the country. But his wife would not hear a word about it; she had
had enough of the country, at Craigenputtock. Meanwhile preparations for
the Life of Cromwell went on slowly, varied by visi