Leslie Stephen, il culto di Carlyle e il Dictionary of National Biography

This article explores Leslie Stephen’s relationship with Thomas Carlyle whose works he greatly admired. In fact, in his view, Carlyle’s biographical method was an important contribution to the Victorian debate on the eminent figures in the history of humanity. Although “the sage of Chelsea” never showed much sympathy for the young Leslie Stephen, it is significant that, after Carlyle’s death, Stephen became one of the greatest supporters of the Scottish thinker. At the same time, distancing himself from Carlyle’s romantic vision, Stephen’s avowed agnosticism and hostility to any form of religious dogma may be regarded as a rational response to some Victorian versions of utopian view of life. In this sense, his editorship of the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) was symptomatic of his realism which was by no means ready to subscribe an idea of the British Empire based on the celebration of the national greatness. In many respect, his agnosticism was in line with John Stuart Mill’s teaching and may be interpreted as a confirmation of his deeply ingrained sceptical attitude to life.