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96 CARLYLE'S LOVES AND LETTERS
or in burbling the chain of my
pleasure of undoing it.
tasks for a philosopher !
frenzy
watch for the
'
Oh,
'
Plato ! what
At length in a
of ennui I mounted a brute of a horse
that could do nothing but trot, and rode till
I was ready to drop from the saddle just for
diversion. I left my companions wondering
when it would be fair ; and when I returned
they were still wondering. How very few
people retain their faculties in rainy
weather !
We can hardly make evident by short
quotations the difference between the letters
of a gifted person and of one who had a gift
for letter-writing ; the reader, however, who
will be at pains to take Lamb's correspondence
from the shelf and compare his letters with
those of Mrs. Carlyle will no doubt discover what
it is that they both possess and Carlyle lacks.
We would say, if permitted once again to trot
out the weary and well-fired hack, that you
may think of Carlyle writing his " Frederick "
in a tail-coat, or whatever costume you prefer,
and feel sure, if your mind be not too literal,
that his letters were written in the same
full dress. Far pleasanter to imagine Jane
Welsh, coming home from a rout, slipping a
gay dressing-gown over a satin petticoat, and
gossiping till the fire burnt low. What is more,
before she had the privilege
of " "
doing for
"