
Luke Batterham
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£300 - £400
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The recipient of the letter is possibly Carlyle's friend, the political hostess, intellectual and educationalist Henrietta Maria Stanley; if so, it was written prior to May 1848 when her husband was ennobled. The seemingly cryptic reference to being sketched while interviewed may relate to a letter Carlyle sent her on 17 October 1845, saying he cannot accept an invitation for the next day but adding: 'You say you have a "favour" to ask of me which will require all the music of your voice, and cannot be put into black-on-white lest it be refused! Pray make the trial!' (The Collected Letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, 20, pp. 29-30). The quotation is a play on Daniel XII, 4: 'Plurimi pertransibunt et multiplex erit scientia' (Many shall run through it, and knowledge shall be increased), a phrase cited by Bacon in The Advancement of Learning (and chosen by Sir Stephen Runciman to adorn the new lift in Carlyle's London Library). Here, foreshadowing perhaps the age of information-overload, Carlyle has replaced knowledge by stupidity.