Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

VAENHAGEN VON ENSE IN THE YEAKS 1837-57 241matter; and now if the Bookseller will send hisaccount, it will complete the favour ; and this importantlittle matter, more important than somegreater ones, will be well and kindly finished.A few days after I wrote last, there came to me,from Lewis, your Book on * Hans von Held.' Lewishad been unwell; had hoped always to bring theBook, and never till then decided on sending it. Forthis Book also I will very heartily thank you. It islike a Steel Engraving ; has vividly printed on mymind the image of a Man and his Environment ;andin its hard outlines, bound up by the rigours ofHistory and Authenticity, one traces indicationsenough of internal harmony and rhythm. As in theTirynthian walls, built of dry stone, it is said youmay trace the architectural tendencies that built aParthenon and an Iliad, of other materials ! I foundmuch to think of in this life of Held : new curiositiesawakened as to Prussian life ; new intimation thatthe soul of it as yet lay all dumb to us English,perhaps to the Prussians themselves.They begin toseem to me a great People : a kind of German-English,I sometimes call them ;great dumb Titans,—like theother Mecklenburger that have come to this side of theChannel so long since.In my Scotch reclusion I read Preuss's two Bookson 'Friedrich,' which you sent me a long time ago.''Friedrich der Grossc, erne Lehensgcschichte, Bel. 1-4 (Berlin,1832-4), and Friedrich der Grossc als Schriftstellcr (Berlin, 1838).I I