over the pages with a gentle and loving hand, reading here and there his mother’s favorite passages,—­now speaking of the great historic value of the book, and again of its more private value, as his mother’s constant companion and solace.  It was touching to see this pitiless intellect, which had bruised and broken the idols of so many faiths, to which Luther himself was recommended only by his bravery and self-reliance and the grandeur of his aims,—­it was touching, we say, and suggestive also of many things, to behold the strong, stern man paying homage to language whose spirit was dead to him, out of pure love for his dear mother, and veneration also for the great heart in which that spirit was once alive that fought so grand and terrible a battle.  Carlyle likes to talk of Luther, and, as his “Hero-Worship” shows, loves his character.  A great, fiery, angry gladiator, with something of the bully in him,—­as what controversialist has not, from Luther to Erasmus, to Milton, to Carlyle himself?—­a dread image-breaker, implacable as Cromwell, but higher and nobler than he, with the tenderness of a woman in his inmost heart, full of music, and glory, and spirituality, and power; his speech genuine and idiomatic, not battles only, but conquests; and all his highest, best, and gentlest thoughts robed in the divine garments of religion and poetry;—­such was Luther, and as such Carlyle delights to behold him.  Are they not akin?  We assuredly think so.  For the blood of this aristocracy refuses to mix with that of churls and bastards, and flows pure and uncontaminated from century to century, descending in all its richness and vigor from Piromis to Piromis.  The ancient philosopher knew this secret well enough when he said a Parthian and a Libyan might be related, although they had no common parental blood; and that a man is not necessarily my brother because he is born of the same womb.

We find that Carlyle in his student-life manifested many of those strong moral characteristics which are the attributes of all his heroes.  An indomitable courage and persistency meet us everywhere in his pages,—­persistency, and also careful painstaking, and patience in sifting facts and gathering results.  He disciplined himself to this end in early youth, and never allowed any study or work to conquer him.  Speaking to us once in private upon the necessity of persevering effort in order to any kind of success in life, he said, “When I was a student, I resolved to make myself master of Newton’s ‘Principia,’ and although I had not at that time knowledge enough of mathematics to make the task other than a Hercules-labor to me, yet I read and wrought unceasingly, through all obstructions and difficulties, until I had accomplished it; and no Tamerlane conqueror ever felt half so happy as I did when the terrible book lay subdued and vanquished before me.”  This trifling anecdote is a key to Carlyle’s character.  To achieve his object, he exhausts all the means within his command;