Of late
he has gone to the other side of his master, and now mediates between
him and the Thirty-Nine Articles and the Hanover family,--representing
Carlyle's passionate craving for supereminent persons, his passionate
abhorrence of democracy, his admiration of strong character, his
disposition to work from historical bases rather than from absolute
principles, but representing them at once with a prudence of common
sense and a prudence of self-seeking and timidity which are alike
foreign to his master's spirit.
We prefer the second phase of the man. It belongs more properly to him.
He is ambitious; and the _role_ which he first assumed is one which
ambition can only spoil. He has but a weak faith in principles, and
flinches and flies off to "Prester John," or somewhere into the clouds,
when at last principle and sentiment must either fly off or fairly take
the stubborn British _taurus_ by the horns. And in truth, his early
creed was in part merely passionate and foolish, and with courage and
disinterestedness to do more he would have professed less. His present
position is better,--that is, sounder and sincerer.
Pages:
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358