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Carlyle's Study

Carlyle's Study image
Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
October
Year
1871
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A contributor to the Independent gives he following sketchy account of Thomas Carlylo's study : " Entering his study, you find nothing n the place where you expected it. Don iuixotte, with all its windmills, mixed up with Doctor Diek on the Sacramenta, "Ylark Twain's Jumping Frog, and Camoch ii the Attributos. -Passing across the oom, you stum)le against the manucript of his last lecture, or put your foot n n pieco of pió that has tallen off the nd of tho writing tablc. You mistake lis essay on the Copernican System tbr jlotting paper. Many of his best books are boreft of the binding, and in attemptng to repluce the covers Hudibras gets ,he covers that belong to Barnes on the Acts of the Apostles. An earthquake in he room would be moro apt to improve ihan unsctt?e. Thore aro marks where the nkstand became unstable, and made a land writing on tho wall that even Daniel could not havo interpretcd. If, some faal day, the wifc; or housekeepcr comes in whilo the occupant is absent, to ' clear up,' a damage is done that takes weeks to repair. For many days the question is, Where are my pens? Who has tho concordance ? What on earth has become of ,he dictionary ? Where is the paper cut&r?' Work is impoded, patience lost, ongageinents are broken, because it was not understood that 'the study' is a part of the student's life, and that you might as well try to chango the knuckles to the inside of the hand, or set the eyes in the middlo of the forehead, as to make the man of whom we spoak keep his pen on the rack, or his books off the Hoor, or the blotting paper straight in the portfolio. " The studio is a part of the mental development. Do not blame a man for the style of his literary apartments, any more than you would for tho color of his hair, or the shapo of his nose. If Hobbes carry his study with him, and his pen and inkhorn in tho top of his cañe, so let him carry thora. If Lamartine can best composo whilo walking in his park, paper anc pencil in hand, so lot him ramblc. I: Kobert Hall thinks easiest when lying flat on his back, let him be prostrate. Ii Salmasius writes best when surroundec by children, let loose on him tho nursery Do not critiuisu Charlea Dickens becauso ho threw all tho windowa open and th( SÜades up. It may fade tho carpet, bu will pour sunshine into the hearts of a million readers, lt Thomas Carlyle choso t,D rail around an ink-spatterod table Goethe and Schiller and Joan Paul Priedrich Richter, and dissoct tho shams of the world with a quill, so bo it. ïho horas on an ox's hcad are not more certainly part of tho ox than Thomas Carlyle's study and all its appointments are a part of Tliomas Carlyle. Tho gazolle will have soft fur, and the lion a shaggy hide, and the tancturn tanctorum is tho student's outicle." You may glean knowledge by reading, but you must separate the wheat fi-om the chaff by thinking.

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus