Carlyle

(Thomas), one of the most gifted and original writers of the century, b. 4 Dec. 1795, at Ecclefechan, Dumfrie hire, where his father, a man of intellect and piety, held a small farm. Showing early ability he was intended for the Kirk, and educated at the University of Edinburgh. He, however, became a tutor, and occupied his leisure in translating from the German. He married Jane Welsh 17 Oct. 1826, and wrote in the London Magazine and Edinburgh Review many masterly critical articles, notably on Voltaire, Diderot, Burns, and German literature. In 1833–4 his Sartor Resartus appeared in Fraser’s Magazine . In ’34 he removed to London and began writing the French Revolution , the MS. of the first vol. of which he confided to Mill, with whom it was accidentally burnt. He re-wrote the work without complaint, and it was published in ’37. He then delivered a course of lectures on “German Literature” and on “Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History,” in which he treats Mahomet as the prophet “we are freest to speak of.” His Past and Present was published in ’43. In ’45 appeared Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches . In ’50 he published Latter-Day Pamphlets , which contains his most distinctive political and social doctrines, and in the following year his Life of John Sterling , in which his heresy clearly appears. His largest work is his History of the Life and Times of Frederick the Great , in 10 vols. He was elected rector of Edinburgh University in ’65. Died 5 Feb. 1881. Mr. Froude, in his Biography of Carlyle , says, “We have seen him confe ing to Irving that he did not believe as his friend did in the Christian religion.”... “the special miraculous occurrences of sacred history were not credible to him.”