Of Thomas Carlyle, also
we shall say nothing at this time, since the quality and the energy
of his influence on the youth of this country will require at our
hands ere long a distinct and faithful acknowledgment.
But of all men he, who has united in himself and that in the
most extraordinary degree the tendencies of the era, is the German
poet, naturalist, and philosopher, Goethe. Whatever the age
inherited or invented, he made his own. He has owed to Commerce and
to the victories of the Understanding, all their spoils. Such was
his capacity, that the magazines of the world's ancient or modern
wealth, which arts and intercourse and skepticism could command -- he
wanted them all. Had there been twice so much, he could have used it
as well. Geologist, mechanic, merchant, chemist, king, radical,
painter, composer, -- all worked for him, and a thousand men seemed
to look through his eyes. He learned as readily as other men
breathe. Of all the men of this time, not one has seemed so much at
home in it as he. He was not afraid to live. And in him this
encyclopaedia of facts, which it has been the boast of the age to
compile, wrought an equal effect.
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