Let no one of you be other than assured that the
beautiful transaction, in result, management, and intention, was
altogether gratifying, welcome, and honourable to me, and that I
cordially thank one and all of you for what you have been pleased
to do. Your fine and noble gift shall remain among my precious
possessions, and be the symbol to me of something still more _golden_
than itself, on the part of my many dear and too generous friends, so
long as I continue in this world.
"Yours and theirs, from the heart,
"T. CARLYLE."
Carlyle's last public utterances were a letter on the Eastern
Question, addressed to Mr. George Howard, and printed in the _Times_
of November 28, 1876, and a letter to the Editor of the _Times_, on
"The Crisis," printed in that journal on May 5, 1877.
He was now beginning to feel the effects of his great age. Yearly and
monthly he grew more feeble. His wonted walking exercise had to be
curtailed, and at last abandoned. He was affectionately and piously
tended during these last years by his niece, Mary Aitken, now Mrs.
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