Carlyle's teaching sounds and recurs
again and again like the Pilgrims' March in _Tannhaeuser_ breaking
through the overture, and rivalling until it vanquishes the music of the
Venusberg.
Yet it was quite inevitable that there should be strong reaction from
any such work as this. To the warm blood and the poignant sense of the
beauty of the world it brought a sense of chill, a forbidding sombreness
and austerity. Carlyle's conception of Christianity was that of the
worship of sorrow; and, while the essence of his gospel was labour, yet
to many minds self-denial seemed to be no longer presented, as in the
teaching of Jesus, as a means towards the attainment of further
spiritual ends. It had become an end in itself, and one that few would
desire or feel to be justified. In the reaction it was felt that
self-development had claims upon the human spirit as well as
self-denial, and indeed that the happy instincts of life had no right to
be so winsome unless they were meant to be obeyed. The beauty of the
world could not be regarded as a mere trap for the tempting of people,
if one were to retain any worthy conception of the Powers that govern
the world.
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