''Latter-Day Pamphlets'' was a series of "

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...

s" published by

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

essayist,

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

in 1850,Carlyle, Thomas (1850)
''Latter-Day Pamphlets.''
London: Chapman & Hall. in vehement denunciation of what he believed to be the political, social, and religious imbecilities and injustices of the period.

Composition

Carlyle was deeply impacted by the

Revolutions of 1848 The revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the springtime of the peoples or the springtime of nations, were a series of revolutions throughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespre ...

and his journeys to Ireland in 1846 and 1849 during the Great Famine. After struggling to formulate his response to these events, he wrote to his sister in January 1850 that he had "decided at last to give vent to myself in a Series of Pamphlets; 'Latter-Day Pamphlets' is the name I have given them, as significant of the ruinous overwhelmed and almost dying condition in which the world paints itself to me." The title is derived from the

Book of Job The Book of Job (), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The language of the Book of Job, combining post-Babylonia ...

: "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth". Carlyle conceived of the work as a sort of prose

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film defined by the spectacular presentation of human drama on a grandiose scale Epic(s) ...

; though his original plan to produce twelve pamphlets – the number of books associated with such epics as the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...

'' and ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...

'' – may have been coincidental, Carlyle's rhetoric echoes the epic form.

Overview

''Latter-Day Pamphlets'' is, at its core, a rebuke of

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

, "the grand, alarming, imminent, and indisputable Reality" of the time,Carlyle, Thomas (1850). ''Latter-Day Pamphlets''. The Works of Thomas Carlyle in Thirty Volumes. Vol. 20. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (published 1903). p. 9. rooted in Carlyle's two basic principles of immutable order and eternal laws. Carlyle announced the theme of his modern epic using the traditional epic question:

What ''is'' Democracy; this huge inevitable Product of the Destinies, which is everywhere the portion of our Europe in these latter days? There lies the question for us. Whence comes it, this universal big black Democracy; whither tends it; what is the meaning of it? A meaning it must have, or it would not be here. If we can find the right meaning of it, we may, wisely submitting or wisely resisting and controlling, still hope to live in the midst of it; if we cannot find the right meaning, if we find only the wrong or no meaning in it, to live will not be possible!

Carlyle called the ''Pamphlets'' "Carlylese '

Tracts for the Times The Tracts for the Times were a series of 90 theological publications, varying in length from a few pages to book-length, produced by members of the English Oxford Movement, an Anglo-Catholic revival group, from 1833 to 1841. There were about a do ...

,'" referring to the writings of

John Henry Newman John Henry Newman (21 February 1801 – 11 August 1890) was an English Catholic theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet. He was previously an Anglican priest and after his conversion became a cardinal. He was an ...

and the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a theological movement of high-church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the Un ...

. The comparison is apt, as Carlyle's polemical style and his search for an authoritative center of life share many similarities with the movement. The best known of the pamphlets in the collection is ''Hudson's Statue'', an attack on plans to erect a monument to the bankrupted financier

George Hudson George Hudson (probably 10 March 1800 – 14 December 1871) was an English railway financier and politician who, because he controlled a significant part of the Railway Mania, railway network in the 1840s, became known as "The Railway King"—a ...

, known as the "railway king". The pamphlet expresses a central theme of the book — the corrosive effects of populist politics and of a culture driven by greed. Carlyle also attacked the prison system, which he believed to be too liberal, and democratic parliamentary government. The imaginary figure of "Bobus", a corrupt sausage-maker turned politician first introduced in '' Past and Present'', is used to epitomise the ways in which modern commercial culture saps the morality of society.

The pamphlets are: * No. 1. ''The Present Time'' (1 February 1850) * No. 2. ''Model Prisons'' (1 March 1850) * No. 3. ''Downing Street'' (1 April 1850) * No. 4. ''The New Downing Street'' (15 April 1850) * No. 5. ''Stump-Orator'' (1 May 1850) * No. 6. ''Parliaments'' (1 June 1850) * No. 7. ''Hudson's Statue'' (1 July 1850) * No. 8. ''Jesuitism'' (1 August 1850)

Reception and influence

Hale White remarked that upon publication of the ''Pamphlets'', "almost all the reviews united in a howl of execration".

David Masson David Mather Masson (2 December 18226 October 1907), was a Scotland, Scottish academic, supporter of women's suffrage, literary critic and historian. Biography Masson was born in Aberdeen, the son of Sarah Mather and William Masson, a sto ...

said that never before "was there a publication so provocative of rage, hatred and personal malevolence." Carlyle's biographer David Alec Wilson wrote that since the "

letters of Junius ''Letters of Junius'' (or Junius: ''Stat nominis umbra'') is a collection of private and open letters critical of the government of King George III from an anonymous polemicist ( Junius) claimed by some to be Philip Francis (although Junius' real ...

, nothing so sensational in politics had been printed in England".

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.hereditary aristocracy while harshly criticising Carlyle's views as "a thinly disguised acceptance of existing class rule" and an unjust exoneration of

statism In political science, statism or etatism (from French, ''état'' 'state') is the doctrine that the political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. This may include economic and social policy, especially in regard to taxation ...

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

would later attack Carlyle's "model prisons" and "aristocracy of talent" in two articles for the ''New York Daily Tribune'', appearing in September and October 1853 respectively.

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...

for his part considered that in the ''Pamphlets'' "the grain of sense is so smothered in a sack of the sheerest trash. . . . He has one idea – a hatred of spoken and acted falsehood; and on this, he harps through the whole eight pamphlets". A century later,

Northrop Frye Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, ''Fearful Symmetr ...

would similarly speak of the work as "tantrum prose" and "rhetorical ectoplasm".

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

expressed his appreciation of the work in an August 1850 letter to Carlyle. "The vivid

daguerrotype Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwide in 1839, t ...

of the times, the next ages will thank you for; but the circling baulking Present refuses to be helped."

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

agreed with Carlyle's feeling, as expressed in ''Model Prisons'', that criminals were being treated better than paupers. Dickens echoed Carlyle in an article entitled 'Pet Prisoners' which appeared in ''

Household Words ''Household Words'' was an English weekly magazine edited by Charles Dickens in the 1850s. It took its name from the line in Shakespeare's '' Henry V'': "Familiar in his mouth as household words." History During the planning stages, titles orig ...

'', a magazine edited by Dickens.

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

wrote in 1862, upon re-reading the ''Pamphlets'', especially ''Jesuitism'', that "I can't think what Mr. Carlyle wants me to write anything more for—if people don't attend to that, what more is to be said?" Carlyle's arguments against the attempt to "reform society through the exclusive mechanism of the ballot-box" impacted Ruskin,

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to s ...

, and

Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the workin ...

, who equally denounced the folly of the "mere brute 'arithmocracy.'" Professor H. J. C. Grierson regarded the ''Pamphlets'' as "central work" in Carlyle's œuvre.

References in other works

In ''The Present Time'', Carlyle criticized American democracy:

"What have they done?" . . . "They have doubled their population every twenty years. They have begotten, with a rapidity beyond recorded example, Eighteen Millions of the greatest ''bores'' ever seen in this world before:—that, hitherto, is their feat in History!"—And so we leave them, for the present; and cannot predict the success of Democracy, on this side of the
Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
, from their example.

This line provoked a reply from

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

Elizur Wright in the form of his own pamphlet, ''Perforations in the "Latter-Day Pamphlets" by One of the "Eighteen Millions of Bores"''; it attacked Carlyle as ignorant and

reactionary In politics, a reactionary is a person who favors a return to a previous state of society which they believe possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary.''The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought'' Third Edition, (1999) p. 729. ...

, concluding: ". . . we will take in good part the broad hint to make our calls shorter and less frequent at

Cheyne Row Cheyne Row is a residential street in Chelsea, London. It runs roughly north to south from the crossroads with Upper Cheyne Row, where it becomes Glebe Place, leading down to a t-junction with Cheyne Walk which forms an embankment of the Ri ...

." Samuel Gray Ward later avoided a visit accordingly. Carlyle wrote to Emerson in November 1850, "tho' Elizur sent me his Pamphlet, it is a fact that I have not read a word of it, nor shall ever read." In his painting ''

Work Work may refer to: * Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community ** Manual labour, physical work done by humans ** House work, housework, or homemaking ** Working animal, an ani ...

'', inspired by the book,

Ford Madox Brown Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often William Hogarth, Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his mos ...

depicted Carlyle watching honest workers improving the social infrastructure by laying modern drains in a suburb of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, while agents of the dishonest Bobus disfigure the area by marketing his political campaign with posters and

sandwich board A sandwich board is a type of advertisement tool composed of two boards with a message or graphic on it and being either carried by a person, with one board in front and one behind in a triangle shape, hinged along the top, creating a " sandwic ...

s. George Fitzhugh derived the title of ''Cannibals All! or, Slaves without Masters'' (1857) from ''The'' ''Present Time'', also quoting from it extensively.

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

wrote in "Letter to H. v. Stein" (1883), "''Carlyle'' has plainly proved to us the natural relation of all Colonies to their mother-land", referring to ''The New Downing Street''.

Herbert Agar Herbert Sebastian Agar (29 September 1897 – 24 November 1980) was an American journalist and historian, and an editor of the ''Louisville Courier-Journal''. Early life and education Herbert Sebastian Agar was born September 29, 1897, in New R ...

quoted from ''The Present Time'' in the introduction to ''The Land of the Free'' (1935). He used an image of Carlyle's to characterize big industry, big cities and big government as "Enormous Megatherions".

Notes

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

''Latter-Day Pamphlets''
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

* {{Thomas Carlyle 1850 non-fiction books Political books Pamphlets Works by Thomas Carlyle