Thomas Carlyle was born on Tuesday, December 4th, 1795, at
Ecclefechan, a small village in the district of Annandale,
Dumfriesshire. His father, a stone-mason, was noted for quickness of
mental perception, and great energy and decision of character;
his mother, as affectionate, pious, and more than ordinarily
intelligent;[A] and thus accepting his own theory, that "the history
of a man's childhood is the description of his parents' environment,"
Carlyle entered upon the "mystery of life" under happy and enviable
circumstances. After preliminary instruction, first at the parish
school, and afterwards at Annan, he went, in November, 1809, and when
he was fourteen years old, to the University of Edinburgh. Here
he remained till the summer of 1814, distinguishing himself by his
devotion to mathematical studies then taught there by Professor
Leslie. As a student, he was irregular in his application, but when he
did set to work, it was with his whole energy. He appears to have been
a great reader of general literature at this time, and the stories
that are told of the books that he got through are scarcely to be
credited. In the summer of 1814, on the resignation of Mr. Waugh,
Carlyle obtained, by competitive examination at Dumfries, the post of
mathematical master at Annan Academy. Although he had, at his parents'
desire, commenced his studies with a view to entering the Scottish
Church, the idea of becoming a minister was growingly distasteful to
him. A fellow-student describes his habits at this time as lonely and
contemplative; and we know from another source that his vacations
were principally spent among the hills and by the rivers of his
native county. In the summer of 1816 he was promoted to the post of
"classical and mathematical master" at the old Burgh or Grammar School
at Kirkcaldy. At the new school in that town Edward Irving, whose
acquaintance Carlyle first made at Edinburgh, about Christmas, 1815,