On the Choice of Books

Summary

On the Choice of Books is the title a later London publisher (Chatto & Windus, in the edition transcribed as Project Gutenberg #13435) gave to a small volume built around the address Thomas Carlyle spoke to the students of Edinburgh University on 2 April 1866, after they had elected him Lord Rector. The volume wraps the speech in a long biographical introduction signed by Richard Herne Shepherd (Chelsea, June 1881), a newspaper account of the day, and three short documents: Carlyle's 1868 letter backing James Hutchison Stirling for the Moral Philosophy chair, his December 1868 farewell letter to the students, and the opening of the deed bequeathing his wife's farm of Craigenputtoch to found bursaries. The address itself is an old man's talk to young men in the Music Hall on George Street. Carlyle tells them he threw away his written draft and will speak 'what comes uppermost', and the report preserves the laughter and cheers. Its single 'advice' is diligence, which he defines chiefly as honesty: keep a hard line between what you truly know and what you merely repeat, and despise cramming for examinations. From there he turns to reading. The university's chief gift, he says, was teaching him to read in several languages so that he could go into a great library alone; books divide like souls into 'sheep and goats'; and a student should follow a real appetite for a book as a patient follows a healthy appetite for food, avoiding the false one. He recommends Greek and Roman history, finds deep religion in both peoples, and spends a long stretch on Knox, Cromwell, the Barebones Parliament's attack on Chancery, and the old peerage as a reward for merit. The second half attacks 'wind and tongue'. Carlyle praises Phocion over Demosthenes, urges silence and speech that ends in action, and retells Goethe's 'Pedagogic Province' from Wilhelm Meister's Travels, with its three reverences: for what is above us, around us, and beneath us. He closes with counsel on health, playing on the kinship of 'holy', 'heilig', 'hale' and 'whole', warns against a sour piety, commends Knox's humour, and ends with his own translation of Goethe's lodge-poem, 'Work, and despair not', and a farewell: 'we bid you be of hope.' The speech is loose by design, and its historical claims (about Norman peers, Machiavelli on dictators, or the English and American 'wind') are Carlyle's convictions rather than settled history. Its lasting value for a school is the picture of reading as moral discipline: honesty about what one knows, selection among books, reverence, work, and health of body and mind held together. Within three weeks his wife Jane died suddenly in London while he was still in Scotland, which gives the farewell letter of 1868 its weight.

Plot or Argument

• Shepherd's biographical introduction (1881)

  A long life of Carlyle written just after his death, quoting his early encyclopaedia articles, the Legendre translation, the German studies, and contemporary reports of the Rectorial election and of the crowded Music Hall on speech-day.

• Thanks, and a speech without a manuscript

  Carlyle recalls entering the city 'a boy of not quite fourteen' fifty-six years before, doubts he can do much as Rector from four hundred miles away, and explains that he abandoned his written draft.

• Diligence as honesty

  The one advice: be diligent while it is 'called to-day'. Diligence means separating real knowledge from the 'hypothetical side of the barrier', refusing cram, and finding out what work one is fit to do.

• Universities, libraries and the appetite for books

  From Abelard and the first universities to printing, Carlyle argues that a university now chiefly teaches a man to read so that he may use a great library; he likens choosing books to telling true appetite from false and divides books into sheep and goats.

• History: Romans, Greeks, Knox and Cromwell

  He recommends classical history for the religion beneath it, praises Knox as the author 'as it were' of Cromwell, defends the Protectorate through the Chancery reform story, and reads Collins's Peerage as evidence that early peerages rewarded merit.

• Against wind and tongue

  Endowments, Heyne boiling pea-shells while editing Tibullus, Phocion's silence against Demosthenes' eloquence, and the warning that a fine speaker who does not speak truth is the most horrid object in creation.

• Goethe's three reverences

  A retelling of the Pedagogic Province of Wilhelm Meister's Travels: reverence for what is above, around, and beneath us, the last called the soul of Christianity, and a vision of a mostly silent, practical education.

• Troubled epoch, health, and Onward

  Carlyle warns of an 'age of revolutions', counsels modest ambition and care of health, explains 'heilig' as both holy and healthy, defends cheerful piety by Knox's example, and ends with Goethe's verse and 'we bid you be of hope'.

• Letters and bequest (1868-1881)

  The Stirling testimonial on restoring morals to a 'divine or supra-sensual' basis, the farewell letter urging the students to love wisdom 'piously, valiantly, humbly', and the Craigenputtoch deed founding ten Arts bursaries in memory of Jane Welsh Carlyle.

Characters

• Thomas Carlyle, speaker

  Seventy-year-old Lord Rector, returning to the university he entered in 1809, speaking from memory rather than a script.

• Richard Herne Shepherd, editor and biographer

  Bibliographer whose 1881 introduction frames the address with a documented account of Carlyle's career.

• John Knox, exemplar

  Scottish Reformer whom Carlyle calls the most excellent man his country produced and credits with humour as well as sternness.

• Oliver Cromwell, exemplar

  Lord Protector, praised for reforming Chancery through a commission of lawyers; Carlyle had edited his letters and speeches.

• Phocion and Demosthenes, contrasting Athenians

  The silent general and the great orator, used to argue that truthful action outranks eloquence.

• Christian Gottlob Heyne, exemplar of scholarship

  Poor Saxon weaver's son who edited Tibullus while living on boiled pea-shells, cited against the idea that endowments make scholars.

• Goethe, authority

  Source of the three reverences and of the closing poem; Carlyle had translated Wilhelm Meister.

Lessons

• Diligence begins with honesty about what you know

  Carlyle's one 'advice' is diligence, but he defines it as intellectual honesty: keep an 'accurate separation' between what is stamped on your mind and what you only repeat. Cramming is condemned not because it is lazy but because it pretends to knowledge. This is a usable rule for study habits and for examination ethics.

  • What does Carlyle mean by leaving things 'on the hypothetical side of the barrier'?
  • Why does he treat cramming as a matter of honour rather than efficiency?
  • Try his test on one subject you are studying: what do you actually know, and what do you only recognise?

• True and false appetite in reading

  Carlyle borrows a doctor's distinction between real and false appetite and applies it to books. A genuine curiosity about a book is the best guide to choosing it, yet some books feed only a craving for the 'toothsome'. He also insists, against the common view, that reading a bad book is not better than reading nothing.

  • How does the comparison with diet both help and limit his argument?
  • Is he right that an ignorant man reading any book is not necessarily doing better than nothing?
  • What would you put among the 'sheep' and among the 'goats' on your own shelf, and why?

• Speech that ends in action

  The address is itself a speech mocking eloquence. Carlyle sets Phocion against Demosthenes and says a fine speaker who does not tell the truth invites everyone 'that wants to be persuaded of the thing that is not true'. Students in a rhetoric programme should face this charge squarely, and also notice that Carlyle says he values Demosthenes and wants him studied.

  • Is Carlyle attacking rhetoric itself or rhetoric divorced from truth?
  • How does the Phocion story make its point, and is it fair to Demosthenes?
  • Where does Carlyle's own speaking style break his rule, and does that weaken his case?

• The three reverences

  Through Goethe's Pedagogic Province Carlyle names the one thing no child brings into the world: reverence, for what is above, around, and beneath us. The third, finding blessing in pain and sorrow, Goethe calls the soul of Christianity. Teachers can discuss how far this matches Christian teaching on humility and the cross and where a Goethean account of religion differs from a creedal one.

  • Why does the eldest say reverence must be taught rather than assumed?
  • What would reverence for what is 'beneath us' look like in a school?
  • Does Goethe's description of Christianity as 'the highest of all religions' capture what Christians believe, or leave something out?

• Holy, healthy, whole

  Carlyle ends with health as 'the very highest of all temporal things', plays on heilig, hale and whole, and warns against a sour, ascetic piety. He admits that serious writing has made him ill and asks students to return to equilibrium after hard work. The passage gives a balanced picture of study, body and joy, from a man famous for dyspepsia and gloom.

  • Is the etymology of 'holy' as 'healthy' persuasive as argument or only as illustration?
  • Why does Carlyle bring Knox's humour into a passage about health?
  • How should a student weigh sleep and health against ambition, by Carlyle's reasoning?

Context

Scottish university rectors were elected by the students for three-year terms and gave an inaugural address. Carlyle, by 1866 famous for The French Revolution, Cromwell and the Frederick history completed the year before, was elected in November 1865. His address came in the year of Britain's second Reform Bill debates and shortly after the American Civil War, which explains his asides on democracy, the 'age of revolutions', and English and American 'wind and tongue'.

Composition

Carlyle spoke without a manuscript on 2 April 1866; the text survives from newspaper reports, including audience reactions in parentheses. The title 'On the Choice of Books' was attached by publishers, and the Chatto & Windus 'New Edition' transcribed by Project Gutenberg (#13435) adds Shepherd's 1881 biographical introduction, an index, and the 1868 letters and Craigenputtoch bequest.

Reception

The address was widely reported and reprinted in Britain and America, and was admired as the speech of a sage who had been mocked for decades and now received honour. Its personal meaning changed almost at once: Jane Welsh Carlyle died suddenly in London on 21 April 1866 while Carlyle was still in Scotland, and he never returned to deliver a valedictory, as the farewell letter explains.

Comparisons

• Past and Present

  The Goethe poem that closes the address first appeared, in Carlyle's translation, at the end of Book III of Past and Present (1843); the footnote in this edition reprints the introducing paragraph. Past and Present argues for work and reverence through a medieval abbot; the address offers the same creed as personal counsel to students.

• Sartor Resartus

  Teufelsdröckh's 'Close thy Byron; open thy Goethe' and his gospel of work are the youthful, ironic form of what the Rector says plainly in 1866: choose Goethe, do the work at hand, and distrust mere speech.

• The Conduct of Life

  Emerson, Carlyle's American friend and correspondent, wrote on culture and books with more confidence in the self-directed reader; Carlyle grounds reading in reverence and in a moral order outside the self.

• Essays

  Bacon's 'Of Studies' ('some books are to be tasted') is the classic short statement of selective reading; Carlyle's appetite metaphor and division of books into sheep and goats extend the same idea with a stronger moral charge.

• Areopagitica

  Milton defends the free circulation of books because a tested virtue needs to know evil; Carlyle, addressing students rather than licensers, stresses avoiding books that do 'wilder and wilder mischief'. The two can be set against each other on how readers learn to discern.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The parenthetical audience reactions, which show this was reported speech, not a written essay.
• How Carlyle defines 'diligence' and what he means by the 'hypothetical side of the barrier'.
• Medical metaphors: true and false appetite, work as cure, health as wholeness.
• Goethe's three reverences and Carlyle's claim about the 'soul of the Christian religion'.
• The closing poem and the word 'Onward'.

Key terms and names

Lord Rector

In Scottish universities, an officer elected by the students for three years who traditionally gives an inaugural address; Carlyle was chosen at Edinburgh in 1865-66.

Cramming

Carlyle's term for getting up only 'such points of things as the examiner is likely to put questions about', which he calls unworthy of an honourable habit.

Ehrfurcht

German for 'reverence' or awe; in Goethe's Pedagogic Province the one thing no child brings into the world and the soul of all religion.

Pedagogic Province

The imagined school in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Travels, run by three wise elders, where boys learn the three reverences and are trained for the work they are fit for.

Heilig

German 'holy', which Carlyle links to 'hale', 'whole' and 'healthy' to argue that holiness means complete health.

Bursary

A Scottish university scholarship; Carlyle's Craigenputtoch bequest founded ten in the Faculty of Arts.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What reasons does Carlyle give for speaking without the manuscript he first tried to write?
2. Comprehension According to the address, what did Edinburgh University chiefly do for Carlyle as a student?
3. Comprehension Name the three reverences taught in Goethe's Pedagogic Province, in Carlyle's order.
4. Interpretation Why does a speech about choosing books spend so long on Cromwell, Chancery and the peerage? What is the connection Carlyle wants students to see?
5. Interpretation How does the story of Phocion's silence at the deputation serve as an argument, and what kind of argument is it?
6. Interpretation Carlyle tells students to 'keep out of literature as a general rule' to laughter. What is he joking about, and what does he mean seriously?
7. Big Question Is it true that some books are worse than none? If so, who should decide which ones, and how?

Faith Connections

• Proverbs 3:13 (Scripture)

  Carlyle cites 'Blessed is he that getteth understanding' when he says the aim behind all technical study is wisdom; students can read the whole chapter to see how Proverbs ties wisdom to the fear of the Lord.

• Matthew 25:31-33 (Scripture)

  Carlyle's division of books into 'sheep and goats' borrows the image of the final judgment; ask whether judging books is a fair extension of a passage about judging persons.

• Hebrews 3:13 (Scripture)

  'While it is called To day' stands behind Carlyle's urgency about diligence in student years, which he calls the seed-time of life.

• Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Travels (Pedagogic Province) (Great Conversation)

  The source of the three reverences; reading it shows how much Carlyle shaped Goethe's religious ideas toward his own Calvinist inheritance.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A university's lasting gift is the ability to read well; reading well requires diligence, which is honesty about what one truly knows; such honesty leads a student to choose good books over bad, truth over eloquence, and work over talk; and since body and soul belong together, the student must also guard his health; therefore the whole of education is a moral discipline aimed at wisdom, reverence and faithful work.

Rhetorical device: anecdote as argument. Rather than define good public speech, Carlyle tells of Phocion warning the Athenians against Philip and replying to Demosthenes that the people would kill him when mad and Demosthenes when sane again, letting the story carry the claim that truth outranks eloquence.

Debate: Resolved: that a student who reads a bad book does worse than one who reads nothing.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Carlyle borrows the doctor's distinction between true and false appetite to explain how to choose books. Explain the comparison, test it against two books you have read this year, and argue whether a reader can trust his own appetite without outside guidance.

Comparison with Past and Present: The poem ending 'Work, and despair not' appears both at the close of the 1866 address and at the end of Book III of Past and Present. Compare what the poem means in each setting, one addressed to students and the other to a nation in social crisis.

Medical Lens

The address closes with an extended passage on health that is useful for the history of Victorian ideas about study, overwork and wholeness. Carlyle borrows medical language twice: a doctor's distinction between true and false appetite to describe choosing books, and the claim that 'work is the grand cure' of human maladies. He also admits that intense intellectual work made him ill. These are a lay moralist's remarks, not clinical observations; they show how closely health and holiness were linked in his religious vocabulary.

• Address, section on choosing books (after the remarks on universities and libraries)

  Carlyle compares choosing books to a patient learning to tell real appetite from false appetite that craves spicy food, citing what doctors say about physical health.

  Physicians Doctors Mind Body
• Address, closing counsel on health

  Health is called the highest of temporal goods; the French financier's lament that sleep cannot be bought; the etymology linking heilig, hale, whole and holy; and mens sana in corpore sano.

  Sleep Insomnia Mind Body
• Address, closing counsel on health (the 'geometric mirror' passage)

  Carlyle describes the ideal clear intellect, then admits that writing a book always made him ill and urges a quick return to equilibrium after such work.

  Mind Body

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Divide a sample shelf of twenty titles into Carlyle's 'sheep' and 'goats', then hold a short tribunal in which each disputed book gets a defender and a prosecutor.

• Essay

  Carlyle claims that diligence 'includes all virtues' a student can have. Using his definition of diligence as honesty, argue whether he is right.

• Dialogue

  Write the conversation between Phocion and Demosthenes that Carlyle implies, set on the day the Athenians must decide whether to fight Philip.

• Fiction

  Write a short scene in which an Edinburgh student of 1866 walks home from the Music Hall and decides, or refuses, to change one habit because of what the Rector said.

Further Reading

• On the Choice of Books (Chatto & Windus 'New Edition'), Thomas Carlyle, with introduction by Richard Herne Shepherd

  Attached as Project Gutenberg #13435.

• Wilhelm Meister's Travels, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, trans. Thomas Carlyle

  Contains the Pedagogic Province and the three reverences retold in the address.

• Past and Present, Thomas Carlyle

  First home of the closing Goethe poem.

• Thomas Carlyle: A History of His Life in London, 1834-1881, James Anthony Froude

  Froude's account of the Rectorship and of Jane Carlyle's death in April 1866.