Two Note Books of Thomas Carlyle

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. To the student of the growth of Carlyle's intellectual powers and the development of his opinions, these books afford material of interest hardly inferior to that contained in his Reminiscence: and in his [enters - letters remarkable beyond most others for the full ness of their exhibition of the character of their writer, for their sincerity and directness, and for the union in them of ease and rapid ity of composition with excellence of expres sion. The Notebooks display in like manner, if in less degree, the mastery which Carlyle possessed over his own faculties. He com plains often of the difficulty he experienced in writing, but his letters and his journal alike re veal the mental discipline which enabled him to give off-hand an adequate and clear expres sion to his thought. There is seldom an erasure or defective phrase in his most rapid and in stant writing.