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CARLYLE
ON THE ALLEGED OBSCURITY OF MR. BROWNING'S POETRY
TRUTH-HUNTING
ACTORS
A ROGUE'S MEMOIRS
THE VIA MEDIA
FALSTAFF




CARLYLE


The accomplishments of our race have of late become so varied, that it
is often no easy task to assign him whom we would judge to his proper
station among men; and yet, until this has been done, the guns of our
criticism cannot be accurately levelled, and as a consequence the
greater part of our fire must remain futile. He, for example, who
would essay to take account of Mr. Gladstone, must read much else
besides Hansard; he must brush up his Homer, and set himself to
acquire some theology. The place of Greece in the providential order
of the world, and of laymen in the Church of England, must be
considered, together with a host of other subjects of much apparent
irrelevance to a statesman's life. So too in the case of his
distinguished rival, whose death eclipsed the gaiety of politics and
banished epigram from Parliament: keen must be the critical faculty