"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."

"This course of lectures," says a writer already quoted, "was well
attended by the fashionables of the West End; and though they saw
in his manner something exceedingly awkward, they could not fail to
discern in his matter the impress of a mind of great originality and
superior gifts."[A]

[Footnote A: JAMES GRANT: "Portraits of Public Characters." (Lond.