25 March 1878 – 31 March 1878

To C. at 2.30 ; with him and Mrs. Lecky in brougham to Browning's, 19 Warwick Crescent. B. (in rough gray dress) received C. with great emphasis. ' How good and dear of you to come ! dear Mr. Carlyle ! How dear ! ' and took him upstairs on his [ arm. ^ Pen's large picture in drawing-room, ' The Worker in Brass, Antwerp,' intended for Royal Academy. Old man with hammer and punch finishing a metal dish with rim of dolphins — medallion of Rubens on the floor — pipe on stool — watch hanging on wall. C, placed in an arm-chair, looked at the picture without speaking ; B. went on describing it, from time to time. At last C. said, looking at B., ' Antwerpen — on the wharf — that is the meaning of the name. It used to be said there was hand in it, but that is not so. On the wharf \s the meaning.' C. asked questions about Pen ; asked me, is the medallion like Rubens ? but said nothing of the Picture. C. asked B. the name of his new poem, but B. evaded. * I'll let it speak for itself.' We departed ; B. giving his arm to C. downstairs and out to the carriage. C. spoke of Darwinism. ' I don't care three ha'pence for the Darwinian Theory.' By and by he said, ' It is impossible to believe otherwise than that this world is the work of an Intelligent Mind, The Power which has formed us — He (or It — if that appears to any one more suitable) has known how to put into the human soul an ineradicable love of justice and truth. The best bit for me in Kant is that saying of his, " Two things strike me dumb with astonishment — the Starry Heavens and the Sense of Right and Wrong in the Human Soul." ' These physical gentlemen ought to be struck dumb if they properly consider the nature of the Universe.' Mrs. Lecky suggested that investigation as well as reverence was natural to man, and would not Mr. Carlyle permit inquiry "? 'Oh yes,' he said (half jestingly), ' man is full of curiosity — but I would order these people to say as little as possible. Friedrich Wilhelm's plan would be the right one with them, " Hold your tongue or else — " ' Carlyle has taken again to reading Goethe.

Helen and I to an evening party at Tennyson's at 14 Eaton Square. Arrive 9.30. Mrs, Tennyson on sofa. Mrs. Thackeray Ritchie and husband, Browning, Gladstone and Mrs. Gladstone, Paget, Duke of Argyll and daughter, Messrs. Matthew Arnold, Lewis Morris, E. Gurney, F. Pollock. Joachim plays ; T. and myself at end of piano. He asks, ' Have you any politics .'' ' Says, ' I can't agree with you about Russia — you're a damned Irish- man ! I've hated Russia ever since I was born, and I'll hate her till I die ! ' W. A. — ' What do you think of Dizzy .? ' T. — ' I hate Dizzy, and I love Gladstone ; still, I want Russia snubbed.' Spedding joined the conversation, and was also against Russia as Russia. (Carlyle always supports Russia as Russia.) F. Locker, Aide, Mrs. Huxley (asks us for Sunday week), Huxley girls.