memories, and writes at a distance from his works of reference. These have been noted in no spirit of vainglory, but with the natural hesitation of the novice on whom it is laid to change places for the moment with his master.

The task of preparing this work, though thoroughly congenial, and taken up lightheartedly enough, proved heavier as it neared completion. Carlyle's course through the world of books is as incalculable as a bee's in a clover-field. He is besides a giant-in seven-league boots; and Hop o' my Thumb's chances of keeping him in sight are not brilliant. Though I have striven to avoid the usual jeers at commentators and their farthing candles, I cannot hope that all readers will find "each dark passage" sufficiently illuminated. There are still a few holes in Sartor's coat which remain to be neatly darned, and some regrettable gaps in my information. These are indicated in the hope that more learned critics may fill them up. As I have been forced to work without the aid of a modern, adequate library, my references are not always made to the best or most accessible editions; though they are, I trust, clear and in every case to be relied To break a road through new country is rough work, and much may be forgiven the pioneer, if the way he opens up is found to be merely passable.

on.

That the imperfections of this work are not more numerous than they are, is largely due to the kindness of many friends who supplied information or transcribed extracts, or verified references which were inaccessible to me. To my colleagues at Dalhousie my thanks are first due, to Profs. C. MacDonald, J. Johnson, J. Liechti, J. G. MacGregor, W. C. Murray, and H. Murray, also to Prof. W. M. Tweedie of Mt. Allison University, the Rev. Wm. King of Christ

Church, Cambridge, W. C. Desbrisay, Esq., of Ottawa, T. Heath Haviland, Esq., of Charlottetown, P. E. I., and chiefly to Prof. Charles Eliot Norton, who lent me his precious manuscript copy of Carlyle's Journals, and in other ways encouraged this present work; to Prof. G. L. Kittredge whose editorial zeal enabled him to endure the whole corpus of notes at one memorable sitting; to my old friend Dr. F. H. Sykes of the Western University, whose affection has survived the ordeal of reading many proof-sheets; and to one other friend I need not name, who aided in the tedious task of collating texts. The list is too long for any claim of independence, but not for gratitude.

The Glass House, Dutch Village,

HALIFAX, July 26, 1895.

INTRODUCTION.

I.

IN the year 1830,1 Carlyle was living with his wife in the lonely moorland farm-house of Craigenputtoch, which is by interpretation, "Hill of the Hawks," on the western border of his native shire, Dumfries. He was no longer young, and neither a successful nor a happy man. The eldest son of a stone-mason, he had followed the usual career of the ambitious Scots peasant, by preparing for the ministry. His father gave him the best education in his power, paying his expenses first at a good academy near home and afterwards at the university of Edinburgh. Though Carlyle acquiesced in the choice of profession made for him by his parents so far as to preach two formal sermons at Divinity Hall, he found at the close of his university career that he was unfitted for the pulpit, and chose the usual alternative, the schoolmaster's desk. He disliked the profession of teaching and soon abandoned it, but his short apprenticeship to the distasteful calling gave him an influential and lifelong friend, the only human being he ever saw face to face,

1 The biographies of Carlyle are so many and so easy to obtain, that I have not thought it well to load my introduction with any biographical facts but those which directly explain the origin of Sartor. After Froude's classical work, the best is Dr. Garnett's "Life" in the Great Writers Series (Walter Scott, London). This contains Anderson's invaluable bibliography. Prof. Nichol's memoir (English Men of Letters Series), though meritorious, is not so pleasant in tone, nor so admirably compressed.