Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

;WOTTON EEINFRED 85*Ah ! how little you know of it,' replied the other* few can avow distinctly to themselves what they areaiming at, can weigh in a fair balance the worthlessnessof their whole craft and mystery, and see withoutblinking what pitiful knaves they are.It goes againstthe grain with one to feel that with incessant bustle,he is doing nothing but digest his victuals ! Manya time when I leave our chancery court, and findthree bushels of briefspiled up on my table, I say tomyself: "Well, Jack, thou art a man useful in thyday and generation, here is much gall peaceablyevaporated, much wrong prevented ; law is a noblescience !" instead of saying :" Well, Jack, thou art aman lucky in thy day and generation, here is muchcorn and wine converted into ink, much right delayed ;law is a sleek milk-cow whence thou hast thy living."And so it is with most trades that men trade in underthe sun.If you viewed them without magnifiers youwould find that the result was much the same.Lifeis a huge treadmill ; if you don't step forward, theytrample you to jeUy ; and if you do step forward for acentury, you are exactly where you started. GoodCant ! Now she tells us this is a journey towards anoble goal with prospects of this and that on the rightand left ; it is a journey, as I tell you. Long life toCant ! If it were not she, we might hang and drownourselves, and with her one can live in surprisingcomfort.'The conversation of his new acquaintance could