I hope we shall
meet some day or other. I send you my constant respect and good
wishes; and am and remain,
"Yours very truly always,
"T. CARLYLE."
Carlyle first appeared as a lecturer in 1837. His first course was on
'German Literature,' at Willis's Rooms; a series of six lectures, of
which the first was thus noticed in the _Spectator_ of Saturday, May
6, 1837.[A]
[Footnote A: Facsimiled in "The Autographic Mirror," July, 1865.]
"_Mr. Thomas Carlyle's Lectures_.
"Mr. Carlyle delivered the first of a course of lectures on German
Literature, at Willis's Rooms, on Tuesday, to a very crowded and yet
a select audience of both sexes. Mr. Carlyle may be deficient in the
mere mechanism of oratory; but this minor defect is far more than
counterbalanced by his perfect mastery of his subject, the originality
of his manner, the perspicuity of his language, his simple but genuine
eloquence, and his vigorous grasp of a large and difficult question.
No person of taste or judgment could hear him without feeling that the
lecturer is a man of genius, deeply imbued with his great argument.
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