solid, neat, and I should think expensive. I showed him the letter he
had written to me eighteen years ago. It has been published by Mr.
Froude, but it will bear reprinting. The circumstances under which it
was written, not stated by Mr. Froude, were these. In 1850, when the
Latter-day Pamphlets appeared--how well I remember the eager journey to
the bookseller for each successive number!--almost all the reviews
united in a howl of execration, criticism so called. I, being young,
and owing so much to Carlyle, wrote to him, the first and almost the
only time I ever did anything of the kind, assuring him that there was
at least one person who believed in him. This was his answer:-


"CHELSEA, 9th March, 1850.

"MY GOOD YOUNG FRIEND,--I am much obliged by the regard you entertain
for me; and do not blame your enthusiasm, which well enough beseems your
young years. If my books teach you anything, don't mind in the least
whether other people believe it or not; but do you for your own behoof
lay it to heart as a real acquisition you have made, more properly, as a
real message left with you, which YOU must set about fulfilling,
whatsoever others do! This is really all the counsel I can give you
about what you read in my books or those of others: PRACTISE what you
learn there; instantly and in all ways begin turning the belief into a
fact, and continue at that--till you get more and ever more beliefs,
with which also do the like. It is idle work otherwise to write books
or to read them.

"And be not surprised that 'people have no sympathy with you'; that is
an accompaniment that will attend you all your days if you mean to lead
an earnest life. The 'people' could not save you with their 'sympathy'