He worked incessantly, devouring books of all sorts, especially French and German, translating Wilhelm Meister so superbly well as to make it almost an English book.

There was no greater intellect then in the British Islands than Carlyle's and very few with which it could be compared.

Yet it was difficult for him to earn a bare subsistence for his wife and himself.

Froude has brought out with wonderful power and beauty the character which in Carlyle was above and beyond all the gifts of his mind.

If he was a severe critic of others, he was a still sterner judge of himself.