Eulogies, dyslogies, in which one finds no features of one's own
natural face, are easily dealt with; easily left unread, as
stuff for lighting fires, such is the insipidity, the wearisome
_non_entity of pabulum like that: but here is another sort of
matter! "The beautifulest piece of criticism I have read for
many a day," says every one that speaks of it. May the gods
forgive you!--I have purchased a copy for three shillings, and
sent it to my Mother: one of the _indubitablest_ benefits I
could think of in regard to it.
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* A criticism by Emerson of _Past and Present,_ in the _Dial_
for July, 1843. It embodies a great part of the extract
from Emerson's Diary given in a preceding note, and is well
worth reading in full for its appreciation of Carlyle's powers
and defects.
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There have been two friends of yours here in these very days:
Dr. Russell, just returning from Paris; Mr. Parker, just bound
thither.* We have seen them rather oftener than common, Sterling
being in town withal. They are the best figures of strangers we
have had for a long time; possessions, both of them, to fall in
with in this pilgrimage of life.
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