Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

:WOTTON REINEEEt) 69and brambles by the way ; others run hither andthither, now after this gewgaw, now after that.Pilgrims also we have, walking apart, with theirfaces set on distant glorious landmarks ; but yoursloe-and-bramble men are the happiest.'*In spite of your arsenic,' said the atrabiliar, ' Ihalf suspect you agree with me ; in a private corneryou would say, there is little happiness in the world,and that little chiefly for fools.'*Happiness is not man's object,' said Dalbrook,'awakening from a muse. He does not find it, heought not to seek it, neither is it his highest wish.'*Wish ? ' cried Williams.* Nay, Dalbrook, of allyour paradoxes this is the most paradoxical.'*Pleasure and pain,' continued the other, littlemoved, are * interwoven with every element of lifeto love the one and hate the other is the essence ofall sentient natures, nor for a nature merely sentientis there any higher law. But was man made onlyto feel ? Is there nothing better in him than apassive system of susceptibilities ? Can he moveonly like a finer piece of clockwork when you touchthis spring and stop when you touch that other ? Ishis spirit a quality, not a substance ? has it no power,no will ? And is his freedom, that celestial patent ofnobility, the crowning gift of God, to mark him forthe sovereign of this lower world, a mockery and alie ? philosophy ! heaven-descended wisdom !what hast thou been made to teach ! In thy name