Early life Thomas Carlyle was born on 4 December 1795 to James and Margaret Aitken Carlyle in the village of Ecclefechan in Dumfriesshire in southwest Scotland. His parents were members of the
Burgher secession
Presbyterian church. James Carlyle was a stonemason, later a farmer, who built the
Arched House wherein his son was born. His
maxim was that "man was created to work, not to speculate, or feel, or dream."
Nicholas Carlisle, an English antiquary, traced his ancestry back to Margaret Bruce, sister of
Robert the Bruce. As a result of his upbringing, James Carlyle became deeply religious in his youth, reading many books of sermons and doctrinal arguments throughout his life. In 1791 he married his first wife, distant cousin Janet, who gave birth to John Carlyle and then died. He married Margaret Aitken in 1795, a poor farmer's daughter then working as a servant. They had nine children, of whom Thomas was the eldest. Margaret was pious and devout and hoped that Thomas would become a minister. She was close to her eldest son, being a "smoking companion, counsellor and confidante" in Carlyle's early days. She suffered a manic episode when Carlyle was a teenager, in which she became "elated, disinhibited, over-talkative and violent." She suffered another breakdown in 1817, which required her to be removed from her home and restrained. Carlyle always spoke highly of his parents, and his character was deeply influenced by both of them. Carlyle's early education came from his mother, who taught him reading (despite being barely literate), and his father, who taught him arithmetic. He first attended "Tom Donaldson's School" in Ecclefechan followed by
Hoddam School (), which "then stood at the
Kirk", located at the "Cross-roads" midway between Ecclefechan and
Hoddam Castle. By age 7 Carlyle showed enough proficiency in English that he was advised to "go into Latin", which he did with enthusiasm; however, the schoolmaster at Hoddam did not know Latin, so he was handed over to a minister who did, with whom he made a "rapid & sure way". He then went to
Annan Academy (), where he studied rudimentary Greek, read Latin and French fluently, and learned arithmetic "thoroughly well". Carlyle was severely bullied by his fellow students at Annan, until he "revolted against them, and gave stroke for stroke"; he remembered the first two years there as among the most miserable of his life.
Edinburgh, the ministry and teaching (1809–1818) Place, Edinburgh In November 1809 at nearly fourteen years of age, Carlyle walked one hundred miles from his home in order to attend the
University of Edinburgh (), where he studied mathematics with
John Leslie, science with
John Playfair and
moral philosophy with
Thomas Brown. He gravitated to mathematics and geometry and displayed great talent in those subjects, being credited with the invention of the
Carlyle circle. In the University library he read many important works of eighteenth-century and contemporary history, philosophy and
belles-lettres. He began expressing religious scepticism around this time, asking his mother to her horror, "Did God Almighty come down and make wheelbarrows in a shop?" In 1813 he completed his arts curriculum and enrolled in a theology course at
Divinity Hall, Edinburgh, the following academic year. This was to be the preliminary of a ministerial career. Carlyle began teaching at Annan Academy in June 1814. In December 1814 and December 1815, he gave his first trial sermons, both of which are lost. By the summer of 1815 he had taken an interest in
astronomy and would study the astronomical theories of
Pierre-Simon Laplace for several years. He left Annan and in November 1816 he began teaching at
Kirkcaldy. There, he made friends with
Edward Irving and Canadian-born Margaret Gordon (later
Lady Bannerman) who became Carlyle's "first love". It is said that she is the basis for the character "Blumine" in Carlyle's later work
Sartor Resartus. In May 1817, Carlyle abstained from enrolment in the theology course, news which his parents received with "
magnanimity". In the autumn of that year, he read ''
De l'Allemagne'' (1813) by
Germaine de Staël, which prompted him to seek a German teacher, with whom he learned the pronunciation. In Irving's library he read the works of
David Hume and
Edward Gibbon's
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–1789); he would later recall that I read Gibbon, and then first clearly saw that
Christianity was not true. Then came the most trying time of my life. I should either have gone mad or made an end of myself had I not fallen in with some very superior minds.
Mineralogy, law and first publications (1818–1821) , 1826, shortly before marriage In the summer of 1818, following an expedition with Irving through the moors of
Peebles and
Moffat, Carlyle made his first attempt at publishing, forwarding an article describing what he saw to the editor of an Edinburgh magazine, which was not published and is now lost. In October, Carlyle resigned from his position at Kirkcaldy, and left for Edinburgh in November. Shortly before his departure, he began to suffer from
dyspepsia, which remained with him throughout his life. He enrolled in a
mineralogy class from November 1818 to April 1819, attending lectures by
Robert Jameson, and in January 1819 began to study German, desiring to read the mineralogical works of
Abraham Gottlob Werner. In February and March, he translated a piece by
Jöns Jacob Berzelius, and by September he was "reading
Goethe". In November he enrolled in "the class of
Scots law", studying under the advocate
David Hume (nephew to the philosopher of the same name). In December 1819 and January 1820 Carlyle made his second attempt at publishing, writing a review-article on
Marc-Auguste Pictet's review of
Jean-Alfred Gautier's
Essai historique sur le problème des trois corps (1817), which went unpublished and is lost. The law classes ended in March 1820 and he did not pursue the subject any further. In the same month he wrote several articles for
David Brewster's
Edinburgh Encyclopædia (1808–1830), which appeared in October. These were his first published writings. In May and June, Carlyle wrote a review-article on the work of
Christopher Hansteen, translated a book by
Friedrich Mohs, and read
Goethe's Faust. By the autumn Carlyle had also learned Italian and was reading
Vittorio Alfieri,
Dante Alighieri and
Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi, although German literature was still his foremost interest, having "revealed" to him a "new Heaven and new Earth". In March 1821 he finished two more articles for Brewster's encyclopaedia, and in April he completed a review of
Joanna Baillie's
Metrical Legends (1821). In May Carlyle was introduced to
Jane Baillie Welsh by Irving in Haddington. The two began a correspondence, and Carlyle sent books to her, encouraging her intellectual pursuits; she called him "my German Master".
"Conversion": Leith Walk and Hoddam Hill (1821–1826) During this time, Carlyle struggled with what he described as "the dismallest
Lernean Hydra of problems, spiritual, temporal, eternal". Spiritual doubt, lack of success in his endeavours, and dyspepsia were all damaging his physical and mental health, for which he found relief only in "sea-bathing". In early July 1821, "during those 3 weeks of total sleeplessness, in which almost" his "one solace was that of a daily bathe on the sands between
[Leith] and
Portobello", an "incident" occurred in
Leith Walk as he "went
down" into the water. This was the beginning of Carlyle's "Conversion", the process by which he "authentically took the Devil by the nose" and flung "
him behind me". It gave him courage in his battle against the "Hydra"; to his brother John, he wrote, "What is there to fear, indeed?" near the farm in Hoddam Hill, which Carlyle called "a fit memorial for reflecting sinners."|left Carlyle wrote several articles in July, August and September, and in November began a translation of
Adrien Marie Legendre's
Elements of Geometry. In January 1822, Carlyle wrote "Goethe's Faust" for the
New Edinburgh Review, and shortly afterwards began a tutorship for the distinguished Buller family, tutoring
Charles Buller and his brother
Arthur William Buller until July; he would work for the family until July 1824. Carlyle completed the Legendre translation in July 1822, having prefixed his own essay "On
Proportion", which
Augustus De Morgan later called "as good a substitute for the fifth
Book of Euclid as could have been given in that space". Carlyle's translation of Goethe's ''
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1824) and Travels'' (1825) and his biography of
Friedrich Schiller (1825) brought him a decent income, which had before then eluded him, and he garnered a modest reputation. He began corresponding with Goethe and made his first trip to London in 1824, meeting with prominent writers such as
Thomas Campbell,
Charles Lamb and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and gaining friendships with Anna Montagu,
Bryan Waller Proctor, and
Henry Crabb Robinson. He also travelled to Paris in October–November with
Edward Strachey and
Kitty Kirkpatrick, where he attended
Georges Cuvier's introductory lecture on
comparative anatomy, gathered information on the study of
medicine, introduced himself to Legendre, was introduced by Legendre to
Charles Dupin, observed Laplace and several other notables while declining offers of introduction by Dupin, and heard
François Magendie read a paper on the "
fifth pair of nerves". In May 1825, Carlyle moved into a cottage farmhouse in Hoddam Hill near Ecclefechan, which his father had leased for him. Carlyle lived with his brother Alexander, who, "with a cheap little man-servant", worked on the farm, his mother with her one maid-servant, and his two youngest sisters, Jean and Jenny. He had constant contact with the rest of his family, most of whom lived close by at Mainhill, a farm owned by his father. Jane made a successful visit in September 1825. Whilst there, Carlyle wrote
German Romance (1827), a translation of German novellas by
Johann Karl August Musäus,
Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué,
Ludwig Tieck,
E. T. A. Hoffmann and
Jean Paul. In Hoddam Hill Carlyle found respite from the "intolerable fret, noise and confusion" that he had experienced in Edinburgh, and observed what he described as "the finest and vastest prospect all round it I ever saw from any house", with "all
Cumberland as in amphitheatre unmatchable". Here, he completed his "Conversion" which began with the Leith Walk incident. He achieved "a grand and
ever-joyful victory", in the "final chaining down, and trampling home, 'for good,' home into their caves forever, of all" his "
Spiritual Dragons". By May 1826, problems with the landlord and the agreement forced the family's relocation to
Scotsbrig, a farm near Ecclefechan. Later in life, he remembered the year at Hoddam Hill as "perhaps the most triumphantly important of my life."
Marriage, Comely Bank and Craigenputtock (1826–1834) In October 1826 Carlyle and Jane Welsh were married at the Welsh family farm in
Templand. Shortly after their marriage, the Carlyles moved into
a modest home on
Comely Bank in Edinburgh, which had been leased for them by Jane's mother. They lived there from October 1826 to May 1828. In that time, Carlyle published
German Romance, began
Wotton Reinfred, an autobiographical novel which he left unfinished, and published his first article for the
Edinburgh Review, "Jean Paul Friedrich Richter" (1827). "Richter" was the first of many essays extolling the virtues of German authors, who were then little-known to English readers; "State of German Literature" was published in October. In Edinburgh, Carlyle made contact with several distinguished literary figures, including the
Edinburgh Review editor
Francis Jeffrey,
John Wilson of ''
Blackwood's Magazine'', the essayist
Thomas De Quincey and the philosopher
William Hamilton. In 1827 Carlyle attempted to land the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the
University of St Andrews without success, despite support from an array of prominent intellectuals, including Goethe. He also made an unsuccessful attempt for a professorship at the
University of London. In May 1828 the Carlyles moved to
Craigenputtock, the main house of Jane's modest agricultural estate in Dumfriesshire, which they occupied until May 1834. He wrote a number of essays there which earned him money and augmented his reputation, including "Life and Writings of
Werner", "Goethe's Helena", "Goethe", "Robert Burns|Burns", "The Life of
Heyne" (each 1828), "German Playwrights", "Voltaire", "Novalis" (each 1829), "Jean Paul Friedrich Richter Again" (1830), "Cruthers and Jonson; or The Outskirts of Life: A True Story", "Luther's Psalm", and "Schiller" (each 1831). He began but did not complete a history of German literature, from which he drew material for essays "The Nibelungen Lied", "Early German Literature" and parts of "Historic Survey of German Poetry" (each 1831). He published early thoughts on the philosophy of history in "Thoughts on History" (1830) and wrote his first pieces of social criticism, "Signs of the Times" (1829) and "Characteristics" (1831). "Signs" garnered the interest of
Gustave d'Eichthal, a member of the
Saint-Simonians, who sent Carlyle Saint-Simonian literature, including
Henri de Saint-Simon's
Nouveau Christianisme (1825), for which Carlyle translated and wrote an introduction. for the ''Fraser's'' "Gallery of Literary Characters", June 1833 Most notably, he wrote
Sartor Resartus. Finishing the manuscript in late July 1831, Carlyle began his search for a publisher, leaving for London in early August. He and his wife lived there for the winter at 4 (now 33) Ampton Street,
Kings Cross, in a house built by
Thomas Cubitt. The death of Carlyle's father in January 1832 and his inability to attend the funeral moved him to write the first of what would become the
Reminiscences, published posthumously in 1881. Carlyle had not found a publisher by the time he returned to Craigenputtock in March but he had initiated important friendships with
Leigh Hunt and
John Stuart Mill. That year, Carlyle wrote the essays "Goethe's Portrait", "Death of Goethe", "Goethe's Works", "Biography", "Boswell's Life of Johnson", and "Corn-Law Rhymes". Three months after their return from a January to May 1833 stay in Edinburgh, the Carlyles were visited at Craigenputtock by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson (and other like-minded Americans) had been deeply affected by Carlyle's essays and determined to meet him during the northern terminus of a literary pilgrimage; it was to be the start of a lifelong friendship and
a famous correspondence. 1833 saw the publication of the essays "Diderot" and "Count Cagliostro"; in the latter, Carlyle introduced the idea of "
Captains of Industry".
Chelsea (1834–1845) In June 1834 the Carlyles moved into
5 Cheyne Row,
Chelsea, which became their home for the remainder of their respective lives. Residence in London wrought a large expansion of Carlyle's social circle. He became acquainted with scores of leading writers, novelists, artists, radicals, men of science, Church of England clergymen, and political figures. Two of his most important friendships were with
Lord and
Lady Ashburton; though Carlyle's warm affection for the latter would eventually strain his marriage, the Ashburtons helped to broaden his social horizons, giving him access to circles of intelligence, political influence, and power. Carlyle eventually decided to publish
Sartor serially in ''
Fraser's Magazine'', with the instalments appearing between November 1833 and August 1834. Despite early recognition from Emerson, Mill and others, it was generally received poorly, if noticed at all. In 1834, Carlyle applied unsuccessfully for the astronomy professorship at the
Edinburgh observatory. That autumn, he arranged for the publication of a history of the
French Revolution and set about researching and writing it shortly thereafter. Having completed the first volume after five months of writing, he lent the manuscript to Mill, who had been supplying him with materials for his research. One evening in March 1835, Mill arrived at Carlyle's door appearing "unresponsive, pale, the very picture of despair". He had come to tell Carlyle that the manuscript was destroyed. It had been "left out", and Mill's housemaid took it for wastepaper, leaving only "some four tattered leaves". Carlyle was sympathetic: "I can be angry with no one; for they that were concerned in it have a far deeper sorrow than mine: it is purely the hand of
Providence". The next day, Mill offered Carlyle , of which he would only accept £100. He began the volume anew shortly afterwards. Despite an initial struggle, he was not deterred, feeling like "a runner that tho'
tripped down, will not lie there, but rise and run again." By September, the volume was rewritten. That year, he wrote a eulogy for his friend, "Death of Edward Irving". In April 1836, with the intercession of Emerson,
Sartor Resartus was first published in book form in Boston, soon selling out its initial run of five hundred copies. Carlyle's three-volume history of the French Revolution was completed in January 1837 and sent to the press. Contemporaneously, the essay "Memoirs of
Mirabeau" was published, as was "
The Diamond Necklace" in January and February, and "Parliamentary History of the French Revolution" in April. In need of further financial security, Carlyle began a series of lectures on German literature in May, delivered extemporaneously in
Willis' Rooms.
The Spectator reported that the first lecture was given "to a very crowded and yet a select audience of both sexes." Carlyle recalled being "wasted and fretted to a thread, my tongue ... dry as charcoal: the people were there, I was obliged to stumble in, and start.
Ach Gott!" Despite his inexperience as a lecturer and deficiency "in the mere mechanism of oratory", reviews were positive and the series proved profitable for him. , 1838 During Carlyle's lecture series,
The French Revolution: A History was officially published. It marked his career breakthrough. At the end of the year, Carlyle reported to
Karl August Varnhagen von Ense that his earlier efforts to popularise German literature were beginning to produce results, and expressed his satisfaction: "
Deutschland will reclaim her great Colony; we shall become more
Deutsch, that is to say more
English, at same time."
The French Revolution fostered the republication of
Sartor Resartus in London in 1838 as well as a collection of his earlier writings in the form of the
Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, facilitated in Boston with the aid of Emerson. Carlyle presented his second lecture series in April and June 1838 on the history of literature at the Marylebone Institution in
Portman Square.
The Examiner reported that at the end of the second lecture, "Mr. Carlyle was heartily greeted with applause." Carlyle felt that they "went on better and better, and grew at last, or threatened to grow, quite a flaming affair." He published two essays in 1838, "Sir Walter Scott", being a review of
John Gibson Lockhart's biography, and "Varnhagen von Ense's Memoirs". In April 1839, Carlyle published "Petition on the
Copyright Bill". A third series of lectures was given in May on the revolutions of modern Europe, which the
Examiner reviewed positively, noting after the third lecture that "Mr. Carlyle's audiences appear to increase in number every time." Carlyle wrote to his mother that the lectures were met "with very kind acceptance from people more distinguished than ever; yet still with a feeling that I was far from the
right lecturing point yet." In July, he published "On the Sinking of the
Vengeur" and in December he published
Chartism, a pamphlet in which he addressed the
movement of the same name and raised the
Condition-of-England question. of "the speech that gave birth to
The London Library", given by Thomas Carlyle on 24 June 1840 In May 1840 Carlyle gave his fourth and final set of lectures, which were published in 1841 as
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History. Carlyle wrote to his brother John afterwards, "The Lecturing business went of [
sic] with sufficient
éclat; the Course was generally judged, and I rather join therein myself, to be the bad
best I have yet given." In the 1840 edition of the
Essays, Carlyle published "Fractions", a collection of poems written from 1823 to 1833. Later that year, he declined a proposal for a professorship of history at Edinburgh. Carlyle was the principal founder of the
London Library in 1841. He had become frustrated by the facilities available at the
British Museum Library, where he was often unable to find a seat (obliging him to perch on ladders), where he complained that the enforced close confinement with his fellow readers gave him a "museum headache", where the books were unavailable for loan, and where he found the library's collections of pamphlets and other material relating to the French Revolution and English Civil Wars inadequately catalogued. In particular, he developed an antipathy to the Keeper of Printed Books,
Anthony Panizzi (despite the fact that Panizzi had allowed him many privileges not granted to other readers), and criticised him in a footnote to an article published in the
Westminster Review as the "respectable Sub-Librarian". Carlyle's eventual solution, with the support of a number of influential friends, was to call for the establishment of a private
subscription library from which books could be borrowed. Carlyle had chosen
Oliver Cromwell as the subject for a book in 1840 and struggled to find what form it would take. In the interim he wrote
Past and Present (1843) and the articles "
Baillie the
Covenanter" (1841), "Dr. Francia" (1843), and "An Election to the
Long Parliament" (1844). Carlyle declined an offer for professorship from St. Andrews in 1844. The first edition of ''
Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: with Elucidations'' was published in 1845; it was a popular success and did much to revise Cromwell's standing in Britain.
Journeys to Ireland and Germany (1846–1865) Carlyle visited Ireland in 1846 with
Charles Gavan Duffy as a companion and guide, and wrote a series of brief articles on the
Irish question in 1848. These were "Ireland and the British Chief Governor", "Irish Regiments (of the New Æra)", and "The Repeal of the Union", each of which offered solutions to Ireland's problems and argued to preserve England's connection with Ireland. Carlyle wrote an article titled "Ireland and
Sir Robert Peel" (signed "C.") published in April 1849 in
The Spectator in response to two speeches given by Peel wherein he made many of the same proposals which Carlyle had earlier suggested; he called the speeches "like a prophecy of better things, inexpressibly cheering." In May, he published "Indian Meal", in which he advanced
maize as a remedy to the
Great Famine as well as the worries of "disconsolate
Malthusians". He visited Ireland again with Duffy later that year while recording his impressions in his letters and a series of memoranda, published as
Reminiscences of My Irish Journey in 1849 after his death; Duffy would publish his own memoir of their travels,
Conversations with Carlyle. Carlyle's travels in Ireland deeply affected his views on society, as did the
Revolutions of 1848. While embracing the latter as necessary in order to cleanse society of various forms of anarchy and misgovernment, he denounced their democratic undercurrent and insisted on the need for authoritarian leaders. These events inspired his next two works, "
Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question" (1849), in which he coined the term "
Dismal Science" to describe political economy, and
Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850). The illiberal content of these works sullied Carlyle's reputation for some progressives, while endearing him to those that shared his views. In 1851, Carlyle wrote
The Life of John Sterling as a corrective to
Julius Hare's unsatisfactory 1848 biography. In late September and early October, he made his second trip to Paris, where he met
Adolphe Thiers and
Prosper Mérimée; his account, "Excursion (Futile Enough) to Paris; Autumn 1851", was published posthumously. In 1852, Carlyle began research on
Frederick the Great, whom he had expressed interest in writing a biography of as early as 1830. He travelled to Germany that year, examining source documents and prior histories. Carlyle struggled through research and writing, telling von Ense it was "the poorest, most troublesome and arduous piece of work he has ever undertaken". In 1856, the first two volumes of
History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great were sent to the press and published in 1858. During this time, he wrote "The Opera" (1852), "Project of a National Exhibition of Scottish Portraits" (1854) at the request of
David Laing, and "The Prinzenraub" (1855). In October 1855, he finished
The Guises, a history of the
House of Guise and its relation to Scottish history, which was first published in 1981. Carlyle made a second expedition to Germany in 1858 to survey the topography of battlefields, which he documented in
Journey to Germany, Autumn 1858, published posthumously. In May 1863, Carlyle wrote the short dialogue "Ilias (Americana) in Nuce" (American
Iliad in a Nutshell) on the topic of the
American Civil War. Upon publication in August, the "Ilias" drew scornful letters from
David Atwood Wasson and
Horace Howard Furness. In the summer of 1864, Carlyle lived at 117 Marina (built by
James Burton) in
St Leonards-on-Sea, in order to be nearer to his ailing wife who was in possession of caretakers there. Carlyle planned to write four volumes but had written six by the time
Frederick was finished in 1865. Before its end, Carlyle had developed a tremor in his writing hand. Upon its completion, it was received as a masterpiece. He earned a
sobriquet, the "
Sage of Chelsea", and in the eyes of those that had rebuked his politics, it restored Carlyle to his position as a great man of letters. Carlyle was elected
Lord Rector of Edinburgh University in November 1865, succeeding
William Ewart Gladstone and defeating
Benjamin Disraeli by a vote of 657 to 310.
Final years (1866–1881) Carlyle travelled to Scotland to deliver his "Inaugural Address at Edinburgh" as Rector in April 1866. During his trip he was accompanied by
John Tyndall,
Thomas Henry Huxley and
Thomas Erskine. One of those that welcomed Carlyle on his arrival was Sir David Brewster, Principal of the university and the commissioner of Carlyle's first professional writings for the
Edinburgh Encyclopædia. Carlyle was joined onstage by his fellow travellers, Brewster,
Moncure D. Conway,
George Harvey,
Lord Neaves and others. Carlyle spoke extemporaneously on several subjects, concluding his address with a quote from Goethe: "Work, and despair not:
Wir heissen euch hoffen, 'We bid you be of hope!'" Tyndall reported to Jane in a three-word telegram that it was "A perfect triumph." The warm reception he received in his homeland of Scotland marked the climax of Carlyle's life as a writer. While still in Scotland, Carlyle received abrupt news of Jane's sudden death in London. Upon her death, Carlyle began to edit his wife's letters and write reminiscences of her. He experienced feelings of guilt as he read her complaints about her illnesses, his friendship with Lady Harriet Ashburton, and his devotion to his labour, particularly on
Frederick the Great. Although deep in grief, Carlyle remained active in public life. Amidst controversy over Governor
John Eyre's violent repression of the
Morant Bay rebellion, Carlyle assumed leadership of the Eyre Defence and Aid Fund in 1865 and 1866. The Defence had convened in response to the anti-Eyre
Jamaica Committee, led by Mill and backed by
Charles Darwin,
Herbert Spencer and others. Carlyle and the Defence were supported by
John Ruskin,
Alfred, Lord Tennyson,
Charles Dickens and
Charles Kingsley. From December 1866 to March 1867, Carlyle resided at the home of
Louisa Baring, Lady Ashburton in
Menton, where he wrote reminiscences of Irving, Jeffrey,
Robert Southey, and
William Wordsworth. In August, he published "Shooting
Niagara: And After?", an essay in response and opposition to the
Second Reform Bill. In 1868 he wrote reminiscences of
John Wilson and
William Hamilton, and his niece Mary Aitken Carlyle moved into 5 Cheyne Row, becoming his caretaker and assisting in the editing of Jane's letters. In March 1869 he met
Queen Victoria, who wrote in her journal of "Mr. Carlyle, the historian, a strange-looking eccentric old Scotchman, who holds forth, in a drawling melancholy voice, with a broad Scotch accent, upon Scotland and upon the utter degeneration of everything." In 1870 he was elected President of the London Library, and in November he wrote a letter to
The Times in support of Germany in the
Franco-Prussian War. His conversation was recorded by a number of friends and visitors in later years, most notably
William Allingham, who became known as Carlyle's
James Boswell. In the spring of 1874 Carlyle accepted the
Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste from
Otto von Bismarck and
declined Disraeli's offers of a state pension and the
Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath in the autumn. On the occasion of his eightieth birthday in 1875, he was presented with a commemorative medal crafted by
Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm and an address of admiration signed by 119 of the leading writers, scientists, and public figures of the day. "Early Kings of Norway", a recounting of historical material from the
Icelandic sagas transcribed by Mary acting as his
amanuensis, and an essay on "The Portraits of
John Knox" (both 1875) were his last major writings to be published in his lifetime. In November 1876, he wrote a letter in the
Times "On the
Eastern Question", entreating England not to enter the
Russo-Turkish War on the side of the Turks. Another letter to the
Times in May 1877 "On
the Crisis", urging against the rumoured wish of Disraeli's to send a fleet to the
Baltic Sea and warning not to provoke Russia and Europe at large into a war against England, marked his last public utterance. The
American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected him a Foreign Honorary Member in 1878. On 2 February 1881 Carlyle fell into a coma. For a moment he awakened, and Mary heard him speak his final words: "So this is Death—well ..." He thereafter lost his speech and died on the morning of 5 February. An offer of interment at
Westminster Abbey, which he had anticipated, was declined by his executors in accordance with his will. He was laid to rest with his mother and father in Hoddam
Kirkyard in Ecclefechan, according to old Scottish custom. His private funeral, held on 10 February, was attended by family and a few friends, including Froude, Conway, Tyndall and
William Lecky, as local residents looked on. == Works ==