That evening, he talked of the
present state of things in England, giving light, witty sketches
of the men of the day, fanatics and others, and some sweet, homely
stories he told of things he had known of the Scotch peasantry.
"Of you he spoke with hearty kindness; and he told, with beautiful
feeling, a story of some poor farmer, or artisan in the country, who
on Sunday lays aside the cark and care of that dirty English world,
and sits reading the Essays, and looking upon the sea.
"I left him that night, intending to go out very often to their
house. I assure you there never was anything so witty as Carlyle's
description of ---- ----. It was enough to kill one with laughing.
I, on my side, contributed a story to his fund of anecdote on this
subject, and it was fully appreciated. Carlyle is worth a thousand of
you for that;--he is not ashamed to laugh when he is amused, but goes
on in a cordial, human fashion.
"The second time Mr. C. had a dinner-party, at which was a witty,
French, flippant sort of man, author of a History of Philosophy,[A]
and now writing a Life of Goethe, a task for which he must be as unfit
as irreligion and sparkling shallowness can make him.
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