CARLYLE

in which he has asked Carlyle a favour, he explains that he presumes you to be a German Scholar, and as I am ambitious enough to hope to become one I venture to ask you if you will so far oblige me as to give me a list of the books most likely to facilitate the study of the language... I have an intense desire to understand Goethe & Schiller in their own language... Carlyle has listed a German Grammar and a Dictionary but says (they, or almost any two such books, that are handiest), Lessing's Fabels (to attempt reading) - push along, with energy, with constancy, keeping your eyes well open..., 4 lines by Carlyle on the final sheet of 4 sides 8vo., London, 25th October