Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

tion now when near her ?WOTTON EEINFRED 33His spirit was roused fromits deepest recesses, a thousand dim images andvague feelings of gladness and pain were clashing intumultuous vortices within him ; he felt as if hestood on the eve ofsome momentous incident— as ifthis hour were to decide the welfare or woe of longfuture years.Strange enough ! There are moments of trial,of peril, of extreme anxiety, when a man whom wereckoned timid becomes the calmest and firmest.Eeinfred's whole being was in a hurricane ; but itseemed as if himself were above it, ruling over it, inunwonted strength and clearness. His first movementprospered, and he went on to prosper. Neverhad his manner been so graceful or free ; never hadhis sentiments been nobler, his opinions more distinct,emphatic, or correct. A vain sophistical young manwas afflicting the party with much slender and,indeed, base speculation on the human mind; this heresumed after the pause and bustle of the new arrival.Wotton, by one or two Socratic questions in hishappiest style, contrived to silence him for the night.The discomfiture of this logical marauder was felt andeven hailed as a benefit by every one ; but sweeter thanall applauses was the glad smile, threatening everymoment to become a laugh, and the kind, thankfullook with which Jane Montagu repaid the victor.He ventured to speak to her ; she answered him withattenti(5n ; nay, it seemed as if there were a tremor in