Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

VAENHAGEN VON ENSE IN THE YEAES 1837-57 281XXVIIChelsea, Oct. 7, 1857.My dear Sir,—Many thanks for your two notes tome,—for your kind thought in regard to that matter of* Voltaire at Frankfurt.' ^I already had a copy ofthat excellent little tract,—fruit of your goodness tome at its first appearance ;—and have again studied itover, more than once, since these investigations began.It lies bound up with other interesting pieces of akindred sort ; ready for use when the time comes.But you are not to think this second copy wastedeither ;the little pamphlet itself I have already turnedto good account for my interests ;—and the fact of itsbeing sent me on those terms has a value which Iwould not wiUingly part with.How often have I wished that I had you here ' as aDictionary ' ! but there is nothing such attainable inthese latitudes :—the truth is, I should have come toBerlin to write this book : but I did not candidlyenough take measure of it,before starting, or admit tomyself, what I dimly felt, how gewaltig an ' ' affair itwas sure to be ! In that case, I had probably neverattempted it at all. Nobody can well like his ownperformance worse than I in this instance, but itmust be finished taliter qualiter. Nay, on the whole• Eeprinted in vol. viii. of DenTcwUrdightitsn und vermiscliteSchriften, ~von K. A. Varnhagen von Ense, after his death (1858),published by Ludmilla Assing (1859).O O