The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol. I LXX. Emerson to Carlyle
by John Stuart Mill
Concord, 14 November, 1841
My Dear Carlyle,--Above, you have a bill of exchange for forty
pounds sterling, with which sum you must credit the Munroe
account. The bill, I must not fail to notice, is drawn by a
lover of yours who expresses great satisfaction in doing us this
courtesy; and courtesy I must think it when he gives me a bill
at sight, whilst of all other merchants I have got only one
payable at some remote day. ---- is a beautiful and noble youth,
of a most subtle and magnetic nature, made for an artist, a
painter, and in his art has made admirable sketches, but his
criticism, I fancy, was too keen for his poetry (shall I say?);
he sacrificed to Despair, and threw away his pencil. For the
present, he buys and sells. I wrote you some sort of letter a
fortnight ago, promising to send a paper like this. The hour
when this should be despatched finds me by chance very busy with
little affairs. I sent you by an Italian, Signor Gambardella,*--
who took a letter to you with good intent to persuade you to sit
to him for your portrait,--a Dial, and some copies of an
oration I printed lately. If you should have any opportunity to
send one of them to Harriet Martineau, my debts to her are great,
and I wish to acknowledge her abounding kindness by a letter, as
I must. I am now in the rage of preparation for my Lectures "On
the Times;" which begin in a fortnight. There shall be eight,
but I cannot yet accurately divide the topics. If it were
eighty, I could better. In fear lest this sheet should not
safely and timely reach its man, I must now write some duplicate.
Farewell, dear friend.
R.W. Emerson
* Spiridione Gambardella was born at Naples. He was a refugee
from Italy, having escaped, the story was, on board an American
man-of-war. He had been educated as a public singer, but he had
a facile genius, and turned readily to painting as a means of
livelihood. He painted some excellent portraits in Boston,
between 1835 and 1840, among them one of Dr. Channing, and one of
Dr. Follen; both of these were engraved. He had some success
for a time as a portrait-painter in London.
