From Thomas Archer Hirst   June 3rd 1850

Halifax. June 3^rd, 1850 | By the bye, just put dates to your | letters,¹ will you, my lad? – I like it.

My dear Friend.

I have delayed writing, thinking to send you the Leaders Answer, but I have unfortunately been delayed in sending it off, & have not heard from them yet:² but I shall write again to you very soon. Your intentions are much clearer to me now, & I have thought a good deal about your coming home and returning; I did not like it at first, but on reconsideration, I think it is perhaps best for I should most decidedly like to see you here in England, before I leave. But mind I don’t want to lose much time. I have mentioned my going to Carter, he shewed very little interest in the matter, that is, he made no remark, Jemmy too I think will like to stop longer with him, there is not sufficient work for two paid clerks, & therefore I shall walk off immediately that is early in September. So I’ll tell you what it is, if you want to spend more than a month or six weeks here, before you return, you had better get home as soon as you can (I use the word home for Harrison Road Halifax³ remember). You talk about establishing some literary connexion,⁴ it is a good notion. I have enquired & we may possibly manage it. A fine (somewhat extraordinary!) Lincolnshire clergyman,⁵ a true man, from what I hear; (he has been a kind friend to Phillips) is at the head of the Leader, chief Proprietor, &c! now Phillips is going to spend a week with his wife down there, (at the house of a fine old quaker you may have heard of at Queenwood a Tho^s Shaser; he was instrumental I believe in getting Yates there, which latter person is an acquaintance and schoolfellow of Phillips’s {I could run off into parenthetical observations for a week but I must not}) he has made me promise to join him for a day or two there, he wants me to know these two fellows, especially Larken, we will then [sound] him on the matter of a German correspondent, they are making every effort to make their paper attractive, & it is just possible they might agree to it. But any way it does not matter much; I am rich enough (oh! I have persuaded Jemmy and have paid him the £20⁶), & thine is mine & mine thine,⁷ besides I consider thee a safe investment, I was forced to lend to some one who did not want it the other day and I should be very cross indeed Tyndall if I were doing so when it would do you service. Speak then, theres a good fellow, & treat me as a brother. The circumstances are just these and I tell you them, to let you have a proper view of the thing; we (self & brothers) have been selling off some cottage etc. property we have in Heckmondwike, a thing that has been contemplated for some years; the purchase money is not all yet paid up, only a deposit of ten per cent, the remainder in August next; this puts a sum of money into our hands, not needed for income, & at the same time of too small amount to re-invest, until the whole purchase money shall have been paid up. The £20 you have is part of that floating & at present useless capital. There is yet another £20. Will it do thee good?

I had a hearty laugh at your first mention of my first review,⁸ & I liked your last remarks⁹ better still; I don’t think you are the fellow to withhold such even if you knew me to be its author, at least I hope you wouldn’t, for the criticism will do me more service than the exercise. But thou art a very wizard I think, it seems as if thou could read my nature & feelings better than I could at the time; that is I was not conscious then, of wandering from my feelings, I am so now. The apologetic strain of the article was intentional, it was not written for Carlyles disciples & admirers, but for that class which I have just left in a measure, those who could or would not see through the mere garb into the heart & truth of the matter. The appearance of Calibans letters¹⁰ in the same number was unexpected to me of course, but I decided at once to seeing that he had set himself a pretty similar task, & was far better able to do it, to leave it in his hands. This was better on many accounts, for after completing my first, I looked far from cheerily at the prospect of having to continue them. I haven’t enough steam in me yet for criticism, that I saw clearly. Caliban is a very genial fellow indeed, his name is Sterling, a surgeon, of Merthy Tydvil,¹¹ Wales, and a friend of Phillips (of course). There is a natural & unaffected Hero-worship¹² about him, that I like very well. His letter for the present month¹³ is also interesting, some of it excellent, some middling, some I don’t like. That allusion to George Sand¹⁴ is a specimen of the last. I should hesitate a good deal in finding fault with a man for a too ardent admiration of Carlyle, indeed I don’t know where I should draw such a line. Nevertheless, I would not be warped out of my own way of thinking on a matter and moreover by not so doing, I believe I should be shewing best my appreciation of Carlyle. From what I have seen of George Sands writings I think Carlyles epithet & insinuations are gross libels,¹⁵ moreover I have grounds for believing that Carlyle is as unable to judge as Caliban himself; & still he confesses that Carlyle ‘has clinched his thinking.’ He unconsciously misinterprets a provincialism I used with respect to that quotation about flogging and shooting for idle scoundrelism; I am not only of opinion that it was perfect sincerity on the part of Carlyle, but moreover, that there is a stern divine justice at the bottom of it. My expression was a provincial one which is ironically used. I have read that ‘Theosophy of the Hindoos’ in Manuscript it is wonderfully interesting, the present one is only an introductory article,¹⁶ there will be more soon. I had Phillips to see me yesterday, we had a long and delightful day among our valleys, he made me a present of a little book he has just got out on the ‘Life & Characteristics of Elliott’.¹⁷ Did you know much of the old Corn law Rhymer?¹⁸ He was a brave & affectionate old fellow, & Phillips has here culled some of his best poems. His chief characteristic is his touching pathos; which runs through all his poems, he loved Nature as a mother, but the tyranny of man & the miseries of his fellow labourers, stung him deeply, & threw a gloomy shade on his other & sunnier side. Did you ever see the following ‘Plaint’¹⁹ written by him in extreme physical agony some time before his death?

1

Dark, deep, and cold, the current flows,

Unto the sea where no wind blows,

Seeking the land which no one knows.

2

O’er its sad gloom still comes and goes,

The mingled wail of friends and foes,

Borne to the land which no one knows.

3

Why shrieks for help you wretch who goes,

With millions from a world of woes,

Unto the land which no one knows.

4

Tho’ myriads go with him who goes,

Alone he goes, where no wind blows,

Unto the land which no one knows.

5

For all must go where no wind blows

And none can go for him who goes;

None, none return, whence no one knows.

6

Yet why should he who shrieking goes

With millions, from a world of woes,

Reunion seek with it or those?

7

Alone with God, where no wind blows,

And Death, His shadow, doomed he goes,

That God is there, the shadow shews.

8

Oh! shoreless deep! Where no wind blows!

And thou, oh Land, which no one knows!

That God is all, His shadow shews.²⁰

Hear another verse or two from a very striking poem called ‘Leaves and Men’²¹

How like am I to thee, Old Leaf!

We’ll drop together down;

How like art thou to me, Old Leaf!

We’ll drop together down.

I’m grey, and thou art brown, Old Leaf!

We’ll drop together down, Old Leaf!

We’ll drop together down.

Drop, drop into the grave, Old Leaf,.

Drop, drop into the grave;

The acorns grown, thy acorns sown, –

Drop, drop into the grave.

December’s tempests rave, Old Leaf,

Above thy forest grave, Old Leaf;

Drop, drop into the grave!

The last he published was another of the same sad melancholy cast, it appeared only a short time ago in the Truth Seeker & was called ‘Let me rest’. where he says most touchingly yet sweetly --

‘But lay me low

Where the hedge-side roses blow;

Where the little daisies grow;

Where the winds a-maying go &c

………….

There beneath the breezy west

Tired and thankful, let me rest

Like a child, that sleepeth best

On its gentle Mother’s breast. –²²

And poor Ebenezer soon got his wish, & now rests, that ‘all-sought, all-known Unknown’²³ as he called it, troubles him no longer, he has solved his own problem.

You once said something about me writing a book on ‘Nep in search of a Religion’²⁴ and strange enough, one of a similar stamp has just appeared by F.E. Newman (late a graduate of Oxford & brother to the famous Puseyite) called ‘Phases of Faith or the History of my own Creed’.²⁵ He is the author of another splendid book, called ‘The Soul its sorrows and aspirations’,²⁶ a review of which if I recollect, was in one of those Leaders I sent you.²⁷ He is a fine fellow & coming from Oxford a kind of prodigy. Carlyle has had a good influence undoubtedly on him, with some such expansive views, a different experience & more systematic, scientific mind, he has stated his opinions more consecutively & perhaps popularly; they will do much good. The best part of them is their unpretending, simple style, their sincerity & faithfulness: In his ‘Phases of Faith’ I can recognise many correspondences to my own. I wrote to Carlyle some time ago (when I sent him Zig-Zag²⁸) I had long wished to write to the man. I felt it almost a necessity, and what I said, I believe was perfectly natural and spontaneous. I didn’t of course either thank him, or laud him much, I knew better; whatever I might feel; I merely told him who & what I was, what I was doing, & what I intended to do, & so forth, mentioned having written an article for The Truth Seeker,²⁹ & my object in doing so. He did not answer me personally (I found out after I had forgotten to give him my address) but in one of his later pamphlets The ‘Stump Orator’,³⁰ one of the most deeply significant, and valuable perhaps of the series, he contrived to answer me. It is of course made universal in its application, but from a few circumstances I am morally certain that it was written at the suggestion of my letter. First the few paragraphs in question, are in a measure isolated from the context, & added to the tail end of the Pamphlet. Second, there is a remarkable correspondence in subject, and even in the very expressions which I used, it is too long to fully explain, you must see it when you come. You know his doctrine of silent work, & his intense hatred of talk, whether with the pen or tongue. He evidently thinks I may err in this respect, and it is a word of caution, given in a manly & even affectionate manner. ‘Bravo young friend’, he concludes, ‘dear to me and known too in a sense (I had expressed an intention & wish to be on a nearer acquaintance with him) though never to be seen by me, know that you are in the happy position, which I am not, of doing something, instead of eloquently talking about what has been, is doing, & what ought to be. Englands sole hope is in such as you. Macte i fausto pede,³¹ & may future generations acquainted once more with divine truths & silences look back on us with incredulous astonishment’.³² (I quote from memory only³³)

T.A.H.

On re-reading³⁴ the other part of my letter, Tyndall, I am afraid you will not understand, or will hesitate again at that cash portion, by thinking that I shall want repayment in August. It is no such thing, for a year or two I am going to keep back about a hundred for contingencies on first going to Germany it will make little difference to the plans for investment, & will be safer for me as additional expenses & part of my premium to Carter which was just due have swallowed up any thing that in other circumstances I might have saved from my income – What will be the best way of forwarding it should you desire it? You will know best.

Yours affectionately, | T.A. Hirst

Private Student | | John Tyndall | ^{care of} Prof. Bunsen | Marburg | Hesse Cassel | Germany

paid at Halifax | June 4^th 1850³⁵

RI MS JT/1/H/146