The vital fact about him and his wife is that they contributed, if not equally, at least in an unparalleled degree, to the common stock of genius.

But for Froude we might never have known that Mrs.Carlyle had genius at all.
Through him we have a series of letters not surpassed by Lady Mary Wortley's, or by any woman's except Madame de Sevigne's.
Then in 1884 Froude completed his task with Carlyle' s Life in London, a biographical masterpiece if ever there was one.

It is written on the same principle of telling the truth, painting the warts.

But it brings out even more clearely than its predecessor the essential qualities of Carlyle.

In one way this was easier.