On the Choice of Books

On the Choice of Books

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Title: On the Choice of Books
Author: Thomas Carlyle
Release Date: September 11, 2004 [EBook #13435]
Language: English
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ON THE CHOICE OF BOOKS
THOMAS CARLYLE
WITH A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR [Illustration: No. 5 _Great Cheyne
Row.
The Residence of Mr. Carlyle from_ 1834 _until his Death_]
A NEW EDITION CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY

[Illustration]

CONTENTS. PAGE BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION 7
ADDRESS DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS OF EDINBURGH
UNIVERSITY, APRIL 2, 1866 125
THE MORAL PHILOSOPHY CHAIR IN EDINBURGH
UNIVERSITY 189
FAREWELL LETTER TO THE STUDENTS 192
BEQUEST BY MR. CARLYLE 195
INDEX 201
[Illustration]

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
There comes a time in the career of every man of genius who has
devoted a long life to the instruction and enlightenment of his
fellow-creatures, when he receives before his death all the honours paid
by posterity. Thus when a great essayist or historian lives to attain a
classic and world-wide fame, his own biography becomes as interesting
to the public as those he himself has written, and by which he achieved
his laurels.
This is almost always the case when a man of such cosmopolitan
celebrity outlives the ordinary allotted period of threescore years and
ten; for a younger generation has then sprung up, who only hear of his
great fame, and are ignorant of the long and painful steps by which it
was achieved. These remarks are peculiarly applicable in regard to the
man whose career we are now to dwell on for a short time: his genius
was of slow growth and development, and his fame was even more
tardy in coming; but since the world some forty years ago fairly
recognised him as a great and original thinker and teacher, few men
have left so indelible an impress on the public mind, or have influenced
to so great a degree the most thoughtful of their contemporaries.
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, had been established since the year 1812; they were thus brought
closely together, and their intimacy soon ripened into a friendship
destined to become famous. At Kirkcaldy Carlyle remained over two
years, becoming more and more convinced that neither as minister nor
as schoolmaster was he to successfully fight his way up in the world. It
had become clear to him that literature was his true vocation, and he
would have started in the profession at once, had it been convenient