ABSTRACT
The changes and continuities of Alexander Carlyle's views about and knowledge of the Fine Arts, in the broadest sense of the term, evolved, culminating in the fierce denunciation of French Art and Literature at mid-century. Carlyle's familiar terms need close examination, in context. His rather nebulous but still impressive statements about Symbols and Emblems in Sartor Resartus have been traced back, often in loose ways, to Goethe, Novalis, Fichte, and Schelling, with Spinoza on the more distant horizon. Carlyle's rejection of contemporary literature began in his 'German' phase and persisted into the major works of social denunciation. Poetry is a revealing test-case of Carlyle's uneasiness with virtually all contemporary creative work. Despite the grandeur of his own prose, and the visionary elements opened up at times to his readers, he was notoriously deaf to the music of poetry and the deep pleasure it affords.
