Charles Suraner, who heard him, declared that ' he seemed like an inspired boy ; truth and thoughts that made one move on the benches came from his apparently unconscious mind, couched in the most grotesque style, and vet condensed to a degree of inten sity. Harriet Martineau, who h«d something to do with the arrangements for these lectures, did not consider them very successfully delivered, owing to his unconcealed nervousness, and the fact thiit he did not seem to enjoy hi* own efforts These public appear ances he termed in a sportive vein * my day of execution.' As utterances, how ever, they are probably among the most notable of these t ; mes; but except in 1866, when he addressed the Edin burgh students, he has not again ap peared in this capacity. It was some time before Carlyle be came certain of having caught the ear of the public to any adequate extent. Even so late as 1837, he was not with out his doubts; perhaps not at all times free from despondency. In his Life of Sterling, he mentions a visit which he made to the latter in the autumn of that year, when ' from a shelf, I remember,' he says, ' the good soul took down a book modestly enough bound in thre.e volu-nes. lettered on the back Carlvle's French Revolution, which had been published lately ; this he with friendly banter bade me look at as a first symptom, small but insig nificant, that the book was not to die all at once. " One copy of it at least might hope to last the date of sheep lenther," I admitted; and in my then mood the little fact was welcome.' In July of that same year, John Stuart Mill had reviewed the French Revolu tion. ' This is not so much a history,' be began, * as an epic poem ; and not withstanding, or even in consequence of this, the truest of histories.' Mill, in his Autobiography, expresses his belief that the early success of this work of Carlyle's was much accelerated by what he said of it in the Westmin ster Review. 