Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was born in 1795 at Ecclefechan in Annandale, Scotland, the eldest son of a mason who later farmed and who belonged to a seceder Calvinist congregation. Educated for the ministry, Carlyle taught mathematics, studied German literature and gradually left orthodox dogmatic belief while keeping a fierce moral seriousness. He settled in London, published Sartor Resartus, then made his name with The French Revolution (1837). Lectures On Heroes and books such as Past and Present and the huge History of Frederick the Great carried his gospel of work, sincerity and strong leadership across Britain and America. A friend of Emerson and a famous Victorian sage, he also wrote harsh political pamphlets that still require careful teaching. He died in London in 1881 and was buried at Ecclefechan.

Thomas Carlyle is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Raised by a seceder Calvinist father in Scotland and prepared for the ministry; he abandoned the dogmatic system of his forefathers yet remained in sympathy with the spirit of their teaching, calling himself a mystic and condemning atheism while rejecting the accepted creeds. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) via Wikisource

See also: Ralph Waldo Emerson · Charles Dickens