" The
one blew "the blast of doom" of the old patronage; the other, against
heavier odds, contended against the later tyranny of uninformed and
insolent popular opinion. Carlyle did not escape wholly from the
influence of the most infectious, if the most morbid, of French writers,
J.J. Rousseau. They are alike in setting Emotion over Reason: in
referring to the Past as a model; in subordinating mere criticism to
ethical, religious or irreligious purpose; in being avowed propagandists;
in their "deep unrest"; and in the diverse conclusions that have been
drawn from their teaching.
Carlyle's enthusiasm for the leaders of the new German literature was, in
some measure, inspired by the pride in a treasure-trove, the regard of a
foster-father or _chaperon_ who first substantially took it by the hand
and introduced it to English society: but it was also due to the feeling
that he had found in it the fullest expression of his own perplexities,
and at least their partial solution. His choice of its representatives is
easily explained. In Schiller he found intellectually a younger brother,
who had fought a part of his own fight and was animated by his own
aspirations; in dealing with his career and works there is a shade
of patronage. Goethe, on the other hand, he recognised across many
divergencies as his master. The attachment of the belated Scotch Puritan
to the greater German has provoked endless comment; but the former has
himself solved the riddle.
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