Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

—;'VAENHAGEN VON ENSE IN THE YEARS 1837-57 265XXIIIChelsea, London : June 6, 1852.My dear Sir,— Since you last heard of me, I havebeen reading and inquiring not a little about Frederickthe Great ; and have often had it in view to write toyou, but was always drivenback by the vague stateof my affairs in that quarter. For all is yet vague ;I may say chaotic, pathless ;—and on the whole, mystudies (if they deserve that name) have hithertoserved less to afford me direct vision on the subject,than to shew what darkness still envelopes it for me.Books hereare pretty abundant upon Frederick, forhe has always been an object of interest to theEnglish ;but on the whole not the right Books,—theright Books, materials and helps are not accessiblehere, and indeed do not exist here even if one could(which I cannot) sit in the British Museum to readthem. On the other hand, importation of books fromGermany, I find, is intolerably tedious and uncertain :in that, I have to admit that my real progress, inproportion to my labour, is quite mournfully smalland after struggling with so many dull reporters,Preiiss (in all forms), Ranks, Frederic ((Euvresde, in two editions) , Voltaire, Lloyd (Tempelhof'Lloyd's History of the late War in Germany between the Kingof Prussia and the Einj^ress of Germany and her Allies, containing'reflections on the general principles of war . ..' London, 1781-9,M M