But Carlyle was never daunted
by lack of appreciation or by any ridicule or abuse. These only made
him more confident in his belief that the spiritual life is the
greatest thing in this world. And he actually lived the life that he
preached.
For years Carlyle failed to make enough to support himself and his
wife, yet he refused a large income, offered by the LONDON TIMES for
editorial work, on the ground that he could not write to order nor
bend his opinions to those of others. He put behind him the
temptation to take advantage of great fame when it suddenly came to
him. When publishers were eager for his work he spent the same time in
preparing his books as when he was poor and unsought. He labored at
the smallest task to give the best that was in him; he wrote much of
his work in his heart's blood. Hence it is that through all of his
books, but especially through _Past and Present_ and _Heroes and Hero
Worship_, one feels the strong beat of the heart of this great man,
who yearned to make others follow the spiritual life that he had found
so full of strength and comfort.
Carlyle's life was largely one of work and self-denial. He was born of
poor parents at the little village of Ecclefechan, in Dumfriesshire,
Scotland. His father, though an uneducated stone-mason, was a man of
great mental force and originality, while his mother was a woman of
fine imagination, with a large gift of story telling.
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