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CARLYLE'S LOVES AND
LOVE-LETTERS 1
Athenaeum ARE people still interested in the Carlyles ?
Some are, we suppose. The older generation
is interested in Carlyle, at any rate ; though
the younger, we believe, is not. For men and
women under thirty the redoubtable sage has
apparently no message ; but for many of
their fathers and mothers his least word still
has a certain importance.
Such reverent curiosity, though it may
excuse some bad books and much futile
research, will, we fear, hardly justify the
volume before us Mr. Archibald's we mean,
which tells us little about Carlyle and that
little by no means new. One chapter only
can be manufactured out of his sufficiently
indefinite relations with Miss Gordon ; though
1 "The Love-Letters of Thomas Carlyle and Jane Welsh."
Edited by Alexander Carlyle. 2 vols. Illustrated. (John
Lane.)
" Carlyle's First Love, Margaret Gordon, Lady Banner-
man." By Raymond Clare Archibald. (John Lane.)
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