Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

'94 WOTTON EEINFKEDWhen the very high priests in this solemn temple ofthe universe have become blasphemers, when theydeny their God, and love not the worship but theincense !*Bravely said, philosopher ! ' cried Burridge.*With your rhetoric you might persuade one that blackwas white ;mislead us.but we must not let your figures of speechIf people do feel in pain, and vexed withthese same discords, how can they help it, and helpcomplaining of it ? What is your glorious all whichlies far enough away, when a man has got a scurvyfraction for his own whole allotment, and can drawfrom it neither sense nor profit, but only trouble andgrief for his life long ? Was it the poor soul's ownblame that he came no better off; or must he bedenied the small privilege of complaining ? And is henot obliged to the poet, who utters for him in soulsubduingmelodies a feeling which inwould have sounded harsh and trivial ? ''his own mouthIf untrue, it could not sound too harsh or be toolittle heeded,' observed Maurice.'Nay, but true or untrue,' cried Williams, * it isthe general feeling of mankind at present, and willexpress itself in spite of us. Now the poet is a citizenof his age as well as of his country. It is his propernature to feel with double force all that other menfeel, as to give this back with double force, ennobledand transfigured into beauty, is his proper business.'*There are many things men feel,' said Maurice,