IT was toward the end of May 1821 that Jane Welsh
and Thomas Carlyle first met, and we have seen the
sort of persons that Thomas and Jane had grown,
thus far, to be. This month of May, in which they became
friends, is important, more important probably than the
better-remembered month of June 1822. ¹

In this eventful year 1821-2, also famous for the com-
position of Shelley's ode in memory of Keats, two crises
occurred in the life of Carlyle. In May 1821 the inflam-
mable young man was introduced to Jane Welsh. In
June, the year following, occurred the crisis of his 'con-
version', that sudden wrestling with the Dark Angel who
had long tortured his body with dyspepsia, and had
choked his spirit. The genius was struggling with its
clay, and, though the stiff integument had cracked, it still
clung and weighed down his spirit.

A peasant visited by imagination, above the soil but
tethered to it, who had lost his traditional religion and,
as yet, had little in exchange; a seer, above his comrades
in ability, behind them in professional scope, knowing
much better his unfitness for common pursuits than the
work appropriate to his own talents; in these, even, more

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