man,
where too many were narrow, bitter, and inquisitorial. With
regard to freedom in religious thought he was in advance of
his time, and brought the clerical profession into greater
respect by showing himself a cultured man of the world as well
as a leader of his Church. Carlyle, however, would hardly be
remembered now but for the glimpses which his book gives of
contemporary persons and manners. The work was first edited in
1860 by John Hill Burton.

_I.--In the Days of Prince Charlie_

I have been too late in beginning this work, as I have entered on the
seventy-ninth year of my age, but I will endeavour, with God's blessing,
to serve posterity to the best of my ability with such a faithful
picture of times and characters as came within my view in the humble and
private sphere of life in which I have always acted.

My father, minister of Prestonpans, was of a warm and benevolent temper,
and an orthodox and eloquent orator. My mother was a person of an
elegant and reflecting mind, and was as much respected as my father was
beloved. Until 1732, when I was ten years of age, they were in very
narrow circumstances, but in that year the stipend was raised from L70
to L140 per annum. In 1735 I was sent to college.

Yielding to parental wishes, I consented, in 1738, to become a student
of divinity, and pursued my studies in Edinburgh and, from 1743, in
Glasgow, passing my trials in the presbytery of Haddington in the summer
of 1745. Early in September I was at Moffat, when I heard that the
Chevalier Prince Charles had landed in the north. I repaired to
Edinburgh, and joined a company of volunteers for the defence of the
city. Edinburgh was in great ferment, and of divided allegiance; there
was no news of the arrival of Sir John Cope with the government forces;
the Highlanders came on, no resistance was made, and the city
surrendered on the sixteenth. That night, my brother and I walked along
the sands to Prestonpans, and carried the news. Proceeding to Dunbar,
where Sir John Cope's army lay, I inquired for Colonel Gardiner, whom I
found very dejected.

"Sandie," said Colonel Gardiner, "I'll tell you in confidence that I
have not above ten men in my regiment whom I am certain will follow me.
But we must give them battle now, and God's will be done!"

Cope's small army was totally defeated at Prestonpans on the morning of
the twenty-first. I heard the first cannon that was f