Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. He is considered one of the leading "Victorian sages", alongside Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin, and was the only Scotsman of these three.
Carlyle was born in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, to James and Margaret Aitken Carlyle, both members of the Burgher secession Presbyterian church. James, a mason, built the house in which Thomas was born, and he was the eldest of nine children.
His early education came from his mother, who taught him how to read despite being barely literate, and his father, who taught him arithmetic. He first attended Tom Donaldson's School in Ecclefechan followed by Hoddam School. In Hoddam, Carlyle learned enough English that he was advised to study Latin, and although the schoolmaster did not know Latin, he handed Carlyle over to a teacher who knew Latin. He was then sent to Annan Academy, where he studied Greek, Latin, French, and arithmetic.
When he was nearly fourteen years old, Carlyle journeyed on foot from Ecclefechan to Edinburgh University, where he studied mathematics, science, and moral philosophy. He also began expressing religious doubts, having once asked his mother: "Did God Almighty come down and make wheelbarrows in a shop", much to her horror. Carlyle completed his arts curriculum in 1813 and enrolled in a theology course at Divinity Hall the following year. He then began teaching at Annan Academy, then Kircaldy the following year. There, he became friends with Edward Irving, the master of a rival school in town and former teacher of Margaret Gordon, who became Carlyle's "first love". While in Irving's library, Carlyle read the works of the skeptical philosopher David Hume and Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a historical work that infamously accused the Christian religion of contributing to the decline of the Roman Empire, and Carlyle's faith eventually withered.
In 1815, the Carlyles moved to Mainhill Farm, where he first learned German, studied Faust, and completed his translation of Wilhelm Meister.
