Froude and Wilson on Carlyle — A Contrast
"Man is perennially interesting to man; nay, if we look strictly to it, there is nothing else interesting." The evident truth of this statement is proved by the ineffable delight which is afforded to man in the reading of "biography"; and Thomas Carlyle, a master biographer himself, in his "Essay" on the subject, reveals "the one grand, invaluable secret" for this type of art: |To have an open, loving heart, and what follows from the possession of such. Truly it has been said, emphatically in these days ought it to be repeated: A loving Heart is the beginning of all Knowledge. This it is that opens the whole mind, quickens every faculty of the intellect to do its work, that of knowing; and therefrom, by sure consequence, of "vividly uttering - forth." |Biography, then, "as an art of portrayal depends upon preliminary imaginative insight, and the secret of insight is sympathy. To find your roan, to love him, then to paint him as he is: this is the law -- Carlyle thought -- for all truly creative work in "biography."
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