CURRENT LITERATURE.
Carlyle, and the Open Secret of his Life. By Henry Larkin. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—The "open secret" of Carlyle's life appears to be, in Mr. Larkin's estimation, Carlyle's desire to become a practical statesman. This, he seems to think, led Carlyle into his friendship with the Ashburtons, and the constant attendance on Lady Harriet Baring, afterwards Lady Ashburton, which ceased so much pain to his wife. Well, if that were Carlyle's secret, it was a secret not very creditable to his self-knowledge. A man less fit for statesman- ship and less likely to have been of any use in the political world never existed. Even his wonderful genius was rather a disqualifica- tion than a qualification for political life. But Mr. Larkin seems to us to over-estimate altogether the keenness of Carlyle's disappointment on this particular head. He grumbled bitterly about life in general. Bat we doubt whether he grumbled more -about his own failure to influence the political world than he grumbled about many other disappointments of his life. This book is extremely diffuse, and does not add much to our knowledge of Carlyle and his wife.
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