There are objections to every course which I can follow.

The arguments for and against were so many and so strong that Carlyle himself could not decide what was to be done, and left it to me.

He could see all sides of the question.
Other people will see one, or one more strongly than another, whatever it may be; and therefore, do what I will, a large body of people will blame me.

Nay, if I threw it up, a great many would blame me.

What have I done that I should be in such a strait?
But I am sixty-four years old, and I shall soon be beyond it all." The first two volumes of the biography, covering the earlier half of Carlyle's life, when his home was in Scotland, from 1795 to 1835, appeared in 1882 and added to the hubbub.