Record Number: 12957
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'It is about ten days since I got rid of a severe inflam[m]ation-of the throat, which confined me to the house for two weeks. During two or three days, I was not able to speak plainly; & you will easily conceive, that I passed my time very heavily. I endeavoured to read several things: I tried a book of modern Biography "The British Plutarch"; but soon finding it to be a very miserable book, I shut it for good and all. I next opened the "Spectator" - and tho' his ja[u]nty manner but ill accorded with my sulky humours, I toiled thro' a volume & a half, with exemplary patience. Lastly, I had recourse to Lord Chesterfield's "advice to his son"; and I think I never before so distinctly saw the pitiful disposition of this Lord. His directions concerning washing the face & paring the nails are indeed very praiseworthy: and I should be content to see them printed in a large type, and placed in frames above the chimneypieces of boarding-schools - for the purpose of enforcing the duties of cleanliness, upon the rising generation. But the flattery, the dissimulation & paltry cunning that he is perpetually recommending, leave one little room to regret that Chesterfield was not his father. Such was the result of my studies, in my sickness: - a result highly unfavourable to those feelings of prostration before high birth & weight of purse, which (many tell us) it is so eminently the duty of all men to cultivate. Indeed this is not the first time that I have noticed in my mind, a considerable tendency to undervalue the great ones of this world'.
Century:1800-1849
Date:Between 1 Jun 1816 and 15 Jul 1816
Country:Scotland
Timen/a
Place:city: Annan
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:4 Dec 1795
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:Teacher, later man of letters
Religion:Christian
Country of Origin:Scotland
Country of Experience:Scotland
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:The Spectator
Genre:Essays / Criticism
Form of Text:Print: Book, Serial / periodical
Publication Detailsperiodical but in volume form
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:12957
Source:n/a
Editor:Charles Richard Sanders
Title:The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle
Place of Publication:Durham, NC
Date of Publication:1970
Vol:I
Page:77
Additional Comments:
Letter to Robert Mitchell
Citation:
Charles Richard Sanders (ed.), The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, (Durham, NC, 1970), I, p. 77, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=12957, accessed: 17 August 2024
Additional Comments:
None