down and make wheelbarrows in a shop?" In 1813 he completed his arts curriculum and enrolled in a theology course at Divinity Hall, Edinburgh, the following academic year. This was to be the preliminary of a ministerial career.

Carlyle began teaching at Annan Academy in June 1814. In December 1814 and December 1815, he gave his first trial sermons, both of which are lost. By the summer of 1815 he had taken an interest in astronomy and would study the