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[Illustration: No. 5 _Great Cheyne Row.
The Residence of Mr. Carlyle from_ 1834 until his Death]
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY
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There comes a time in the career of every man of genius who hasdevoted a long life to the instruction and enlightenment of hisfellow-creatures, when he receives before his death all the honourspaid by posterity. Thus when a great essayist or historian lives toattain a classic and world-wide fame, his own biography becomes asinteresting to the public as those he himself has written, and bywhich he achieved his laurels.
This is almost always the case when a man of such cosmopolitancelebrity outlives the ordinary allotted period of threescore yearsand ten; for a younger generation has then sprung up, who only hearof his great fame, and are ignorant of the long and painful stepsby which it was achieved. These remarks are peculiarly applicablein regard to the man whose career we are now to dwell on for a shorttime: his genius was of slow growth and development, and his fame waseven more tardy in coming; but since the world some forty years agofairly recognised him as a great and original thinker and teacher,few men have left so indelible an impress on the public mind, orhave influenced to so great a degree the most thoughtful of theircontemporaries.
Thomas Carlyle was born on Tuesday, December 4th, 1795, atEcclefechan, a small village in the district of Annandale,Dumfriesshire. His father, a stone-mason, was noted for quickness ofmental perception, and great energy and decision of character;his mother, as affectionate, pious, and more than ordinarilyintelligent;[A] and thus accepting his own theory, that "the historyof a man's childhood is the description of his parents' environment,"Carlyle entered upon the "mystery of life" under happy and enviablecircumstances. After preliminary instruction, first at the parishschool, and afterwards at Annan, he went, in November, 1809, and whenhe was fourteen years old, to the University of Edinburgh. Herehe remained till the summer of 1814, distinguishing himself by hisdevotion to mathematical studies then taught there by ProfessorLeslie. As a student, he was irregular in his application, but when hedid set to work, it was with his whole energy. He appears to have beena great reader of general literature at this time, and the storiesthat are told of the books that he got through are scarcely to becredited. In the summer of 1814, on the resignation of Mr. Waugh,Carlyle obtained, by competitive examination at Dumfries, the post ofmathematical master at Annan Academy. Although he had,