Editing Thomas Carlyle (section)

=== Edinburgh, the ministry and teaching (1809–1818) ===
[[File:Thomas Carlyle plaque, Buccleuch Place - geograph.org.uk - 1419955.jpg|thumb|Plaque at 22A [[Buccleuch (parish), Edinburgh|Buccleuch]] Place, Edinburgh<ref>{{Cite news |title=Thomas Carlyle |url=https://www.ed.ac.uk/about/people/plaques/carlyle |access-date=19 July 2022 |website=The University of Edinburgh |date=13 May 2015 |language=en}}</ref>|left|185x185px]]
In November 1809 at nearly fourteen years of age, Carlyle walked one hundred miles from his home in order to attend the [[University of Edinburgh]] ({{Circa|1809–1814}}), where he studied mathematics with [[John Leslie (physicist)|John Leslie]], science with [[John Playfair]] and moral philosophy with [[Thomas Brown (philosopher)|Thomas Brown]].{{Sfn|Cumming|2004|p=78}} He gravitated to mathematics and geometry and displayed great talent in those subjects, being credited with the invention of the [[Carlyle circle]]. In the University library, he read many important works of eighteenth-century and contemporary history, philosophy, and ''[[belles-lettres]]''.{{Sfn|Neff|1932|p=28}} He began expressing religious scepticism around this time, asking his mother to her horror, "Did God Almighty come down and make wheelbarrows in a shop?"{{Sfn|Allingham||p=253}} In 1813 he completed his arts curriculum and enrolled in a theology course at Divinity Hall the following academic year. This was to be the preliminary of a ministerial career.{{Sfn|Wilson||loc=1:87}}

Carlyle began teaching at Annan Academy in June 1814.{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:14, 16}} In December 1814 and December 1815, he gave his first trial sermons, both of which are lost.{{Sfn|''Reminiscences''||p=189}} By the summer of 1815 he had taken an interest in [[astronomy]]{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:103}} and would study the astronomical theories of [[Pierre-Simon Laplace]] for several years.{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:127–128}} In November 1816, he began teaching at [[Kirkcaldy]], having left Annan. There, he made friends with [[Edward Irving]], whose ex-pupil Margaret Gordon became Carlyle's "first love". In May 1817,{{Sfn|''Letters''||loc=1:97}} Carlyle abstained from enrolment in the theology course, news which his parents received with "[[magnanimity]]".{{Sfn|''TR''||p=35}} In the autumn of that year, he read ''[[De l'Allemagne]]'' (1813) by [[Germaine de Staël]], which prompted him to seek a German teacher, with whom he learned the pronunciation.{{Sfn|''TR''||p=13}} In Irving's library, he read the works of [[David Hume]] and [[Edward Gibbon]]'s [[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire|''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'']] (1776–1789); he would later recall that <blockquote>

I read Gibbon, and then first clearly saw that [[Christianity]] was not true. Then came the most trying time of my life. I should either have gone mad or made an end of myself had I not fallen in with some very superior minds.{{Sfn|Allingham||p=232}} </blockquote>