Of all the fat books and thin pamphlets which have appeared in England in the past year for the entertainment or edification of “educated society,” the above work is the only one which is worth reading. All the multivolume novels with their sad and amusing intricacies, all the edifying and meditative, scholarly and unscholarly Bible commentaries – and novels and books of edification are the two staples of English literature – all these you may with an easy conscience leave unread. Perhaps you will find some books on geology, economics, history or mathematics which contain a small grain of novelty – however these are matters which one studies, but does not read, they represent dry, specialised branches of science, arid botanising, plants whose roots were long ago torn out of the general soil of humanity from which they derived their nourishment. Search as you will, Carlyle’s book is the only one which strikes a human chord, presents human relations and shows traces of a human point of view.