INTRODUCTORY.

THOMAS CARLYLE was born on the 4th of December, 1795, in the parish of Middlebie, about half a mile from the village of Ecclefechan, in the pastoral district of Annandale. His father was a small farmer, in comfortable circumstances; a man possessing great force of character, of an earnest religious nature, and much respected throughout the district, not less for his moral worth than for his native strength of intellect. By the villagers he is said to have been regarded as quite an oracle, and they still relate many instances of his striking original observations, and strong sarcastic wit. "In his parentage, therefore," as Carlyle himself says of Burns, “he had every reason to reckon himself fortunate; his father was a man of thoughtful, intense, earnest character, as the best of our peasants are; valuing knowledge, possessing some, and, what is far better and rarer, open-minded for more: a man with a keen insight, and devout heart; reverent towards God, friendly, therefore, towards all that God has made; in one word, though but a hard-handed peasant, a complete and fully unfolded Man. Such a father is seldom found in any rank in society; and was worth descending far in society to seek." Add to this, that Carlyle's mother was a woman of superior intelligence, kind-hearted and pious, and it will at

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