a_ HISTORY _of it_."

To the "New Edinburgh Review" (1821-22) Carlyle also contributed
two papers--one on Joanna Baillie's "Metrical Legends," and one on
Goethe's "Faust."

In the year 1822 he made a translation of "Legendre's Geometry," to
which he prefixed an Essay on Proportion; and the book appeared a
year or two afterwards under the auspices of the late Sir David
Brewster.[A] The Essay on Proportion remains to this day the most
lucid and succinct exposition of the subject hitherto published.

[Footnote A: "Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry," with Notes.
Translated from the French of A.M. Legendre. Edited by David Brewster,
LL.D. With Notes and Additions, and an Introductory Chapter on
Proportion. Edinburgh: published by Oliver and Boyd; and G. and W.B.
Whittaker, London. 1824, pp. xvi., 367. Sir David Brewster's
Preface, in which he speaks of "an Introduction on Proportion, by the
Translator," is dated _Edinburgh, August_ 1, 1822.]

"I was already," says Carlyle in his _Reminiscences_, "getting my head
a little up, translating 'Legendre's Geometry' for Brewster. I still
remember a happy forenoon in which I did a _Fifth Book_ (or complete
'doctrine of proportion') for that work, complete really and lucid,
and yet one of the briefest ever known. It was begun and done that
forenoon, and I have (except correcting the press next week) never
seen it since; but still I feel as if it were right enough and
felicitous in its kind! I only got £50 for my entire trouble in that
'Legendre;' but it was an honest job of work, honestly done."[A]