Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

;22 WOTTON REINFREDthey could not. Polishud steel may be breathed onwithout being rusted, but not long oroften withoutbeing bedimmed. Wotton fought hard with evil ; forfiercely were the depths of hisfiery nature assailedhe was not conquered, yet neither did he conquer,without loss, and thesethe discord within.contests added new uproar toOf his progress in the learned languages he himselfmade little account; nor in metaphysics did hefind any light, but, rather, doubt or darkness ; if hetalked of the matter it was in words of art, and hisown honest nature whispered to him the while thatthey were only words.Mathematics and the kindredsciences, at once occupying and satisfying his logicalfaculty, took much deeper hold of him ; nay, bydegrees, as he felt his own independent progress,almost alienated him for a long season from allotherstudies.' Is not truth,' said he, ' the pearl of greatprice, and where shall we find it but here ? ' Hegloried to track the footstepsof the mighty Newton,and in the thought that he could say to himself:Thou, even thou, artprivileged to look from his higheminence, and to behold with thy own eyes the orderof that stupendous fabric ; thou seest it in light andmystic harmony, which, though all living men denied,thou wouldst not even doubt ! A proud thought,truly, for little man ;unwisely !but a sad one if he pursue itThe Principia do bat enlighten one small forecourt