Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881). Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, translator, historian, mathematician, and teacher. Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, he presented many lectures during his lifetime with certain acclaim in the Victorian era. One of those conferences resulted in his famous work On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History where he argued that the key role in history lies in the actions of the Great Man, claiming that the history of the world is but the biography of great men. A respected historian, his 1837 book The French Revolution: A History was the inspiration for Charles Dickens' 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities, and remains popular today. Carlyle's 1836 Sartor Resartus is a notable philosophical novel. A great polemicist, Carlyle coined the term the dismal science for economics, in his essay Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question, which remains controversial. He also wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopædia. Once a Christian, Carlyle lost his faith while attending the University of Edinburgh, later adopting a form of deism. In mathematics, he is known for the Carlyle circle, a method used in quadratic equations and for developing ruler-and-compass constructions of regular polygons. Carlyle was born in Ecclefechan in Dumfriesshire. His parents determinedly afforded him an education at Annan Academy, Annan, where he was bullied and tormented so much that he left after three years. His father was a member of the Burgher secession presbyterian church. In early life, his family's strong Calvinist beliefs powerfully influenced the young man. After attending the University of Edinburgh, Carlyle became a mathematics teacher, first in Annan and then in Kirkcaldy, where he became close friends with the mystic Edward Irving. In 1819-21, Carlyle returned to the University of Edinburgh, where he suffered an intense crisis of faith and a conversion, which provided the material for Sartor Resartus, which first brought him to the public's notice. Carlyle developed a painful stomach ailment, possibly gastric ulcers, that remained throughout his life and likely contributed to his reputation as a crotchety, argumentative, somewhat disagreeable personality. His prose style, famously cranky and occasionally savage, helped cement an air of irascibility. Carlyle's thinking became heavily influenced by German idealism, in particular the work of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. He established himself as an expert on German literature in a series of essays for Fraser's Magazine, and by translating German works, notably Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre. He also wrote a Life of Schiller. In 1826, Thomas Carlyle married fellow intellectual Jane Baillie Welsh, whom he had met through Edward Irving during his period of German studies. In 1827, he applied for the Chair of Moral Philosophy at St Andrews University but was not appointed. They moved to the main house of Jane's modest agricultural estate at Craigenputtock, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. He often wrote about his life at Craigenputtock-in particular: It is certain that for living and thinking in I have never since found in the world a place so favourable. Here Carlyle wrote some of his most distinguished essays, and began a lifelong friendship with the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1831, the Carlyles moved to London, settling initially in lodgings at 4 Ampton Street, Kings Cross. In 1834, they moved to 5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, which has since been preserved as a museum to Carlyle's memory. He became known as the Sage of Chelsea, and a member of a literary circle which included the essayists Leigh Hunt and John Stuart Mill. Here Carlyle wrote The French Revolution: A History, a historical study concentrating both on the oppression of the poor of France and on the horrors of the mob unleashed. The book was immediately successful. By 1821, Carlyle abandoned the clergy as a career and focused on making a life as a writer. His first fiction was Cruthers and Jonson, one of several abortive attempts at writing a novel. Following his work on a translation of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, he came to distrust the form of the realistic novel and so worked on developing a new form of fiction. In addition to his essays on German literature, he branched out into wider ranging commentary on modern culture in his influential essays Signs of the Times and Characteristics.