seaport town on the east coast of Fife. His father | could form or announce a wish, he declared that was a dyer, shipowner, and general merchant, de- he would be a minister; and the sister of one of scended from a family long connected with that his schoolfellows relates that breaking in one day part of the country. His great-grandfather, Mr. on her brother and young Chalmers, she found the James Chalmers, son of John Chalmers, laird of future divine standing on a chair, and preaching Pitmedden, was ordained minister of Elie in 1701. vigorously to his single auditor on the text, "Let In the year after his ordination he married the brotherly love continue!" daughter of an episcopal clergyman, who, by the savings of economy, purchased the estate of Radernie, which is still held by her descendants. Her eldest daughter was married to Mr. T. Kay, minister of Kilrenny, and it was to Mrs. Kay's son-in-law, Dr. Adamson of St. Andrews, that Dr. Chalmers was indebted for the presentation to Kilmany parish. The eldest son (the eldest brother of Dr. Chalmers' grandfather) succeeded his father as minister of Elie, and was afterwards translated to Kilconquhar. Mr. Chalmers' second son (Dr. Chalmers' grandfather) married Barbara Anderson, Easter Anstruther, and settled in that town as a merchant. He was succeeded in business by his second son, Mr. John Chalmers (Dr. Chalmers' father), who married Elizabeth Hall, daughter of a wine merchant at Crail. They had a numerous family-consisting of nine sons and five daughters—all of whom, save one, reached manhood. Dr. Chalmers was the sixth child, and fourth son. When yet almost an infant, he was committed to the care of a nurse, “whose cruelty and deceitfulness haunted his memory through life." To escape this woman he went to school when only three years old, but here he was tormented by a pedantic and irritable schoolmaster, named Bryce, "a sightless tyrant," who used to steal behind upon his victims, like a tiger, guided by the sound of their voices. This man had an assistant named Daniel Ramsay, who was as easy as his principal was severe, and both were equally inefficient. In his old age Ramsay fell into a state of destitution, and was often relieved by his old pupil, Dr. Chalmers, who gave him many a pound note. The stories and precepts of the Bible, at a very early period, made an impression on his mind. When only about three years of age, he was one evening found pacing up and down the nursery alone, in the dark, excited and absorbed, repeat-plification of the Lord's Prayer, so eloquently exing "O, my son, Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!" It would appear that as soon as he In November 1791, whilst not yet twelve years of age, accompanied by his eldest brother William, he entered as a student the united college of St. Andrews, and among his fellow students was John Campbell, the son of the minister of Cupar, who afterwards became Lord Campbell, lord chief justice of the queen's bench. At that time he could not write at all correctly; his letters were full of bad grammar and words mis-spelled. As in the case of many other great men, his talents did not develope themselves early. He was volatile and idle in his habits, and paid little attention to his classes during the first two years of his college course. He excelled at football, but still more at handball, owing to his being left handed. His third session at college was his intellectual birthtime. His physical powers had now been ma tured, and science awoke the mental activity and force of will, which never afterward slumbered. Dr. James Brown, the assistant mathematical professor, was the means of kindling young Chalmers' enthusiasm, and a friendship commenced between the pupil and teacher, which lasted for many years. In November 1795, when fifteen years old, he was enrolled a student of divinity. His attainments in theology did not at first attract much notice, indeed his biographer tells us that theology occupied very little of his thoughts, but he early discovered a predilection for mathematics and chemistry. Towards the close of the session, however, he turned his attention to Edwards on Free Will, and studied that author so intensely that some were afraid his mind would lose its balance. At that time the members of the university assembled daily in the public hall for prayer, which was performed by the theological students in rotation. When it came to Chalmers to officiate for the first time, his prayer was an am pressed as to excite wonder; and when the people of St. Andrews knew it to be his turn to lead th devotions, they flocked to the hall, which was open to the public. For the cultivation of his talent for composition, he was largely indebted to debating societies formed among the students. In session 1798-9, he took as a subject for the debating society connected with the college, "Is man a free agent?" and defended the negative side. Even then, though but eighteen years of age, he was a formidable antagonist in debate. It was about this time that he penned a college essay on religious enthusiasm, which is said to have been the groundwork of the splendid speech delivered by him forty years afterwards, in a solemn convocation of four hundred evangelical ministers, when in November 1842, they met to decide upon separating from the Church of Scotland, and produced an effect as overwhelming as anything he ever uttered. After his college course was finished, he became tutor in a family who treated him with great superciliousness. From his private letters at this time it would appear that he was sadly mortified at the conduct of this family-even the very servants treating him with marked disrespect. "The whole combined household," says his son-in-law and biographer, Dr. Hanna, "were at war with him. The undaunted tutor resolved nevertheless to act his part with dignity and effect. Remonstrances were vain. To the wrong they did him in dismissing him, when company came, to his own room, they would apply no remedy. He devised therefore a remedy of his own.-He was living near a town in which, through means of introductions given him by Fifeshire friends, he had already formed some acquaintances. Whenever he knew that there was to be a supper from which he would be excluded, he ordered one in a neighbouring inn, to which he invited one or more of his own friends. To make his purpose all the more manifest, he waited till the servant entered with his solitary repast, when he ordered it away, saying, I sup elsewhere to-night.'-Such curiously-timed tutorship suppers were not very likely to be relished by Mr. who charged him with unseemly and unseasonable pride. 'Sir,' said he, the very servants are complaining of your haughtiness. You have far too much pride, sir.''There are two kinds of pride, sir,' was the reply. There is that kind of pride which lords it over inferiors; and there is that pride which rejoices in repressing the insolence of superiors. The first I have none of the second I glory in." When but nineteen years of age, he applied for license as a preacher; which was granted on the plea that he was "a lad o' pregnant pairts." He was licensed 31st July 1799, and preached his first sermon in Chapel-lane Chapel, in Wigan, on 25th August. On the following Sabbath he preached in Liverpool. His brother James, who heard him preach, wrote to his father that he thought Thomas more occupied with his mathematical studies than with his religious, and referred in proof, to some documents in Thomas' handwriting, adding, "if you can read them,"-for even then his handwriting was so bad that his father is said to have laid aside his letters till he returned home to read them himself. He subsequently attended for two sessions the classes of chemistry and natural philosophy at Edinburgh, under Dr. Hope and Professor Robison. He had also a ticket to Dr. Brown's class of moral philosophy. About this period, he became an admirer of the works of Godwin, and thenceforth the philosophical scepticism which for a time characterised him commenced. In a letter to his father, he mentioned that he was getting into a stock of sermons, which would render "the business abundantly easy," when he got a church, which he was at that time expecting. In 1801 he became assistant minister of the parish of Cavers, near Hawick, in Roxburghshire. At this period of his life he evinced nothing, either in his mode of preaching or in general ability, to distinguish him from the ordinary run of young probationers, except perhaps in the positive character of his habits, and a somewhat self-willed and independent spirit of abstraction. In 1803, when little more than twenty-two years of age, he was appointed assistant to Professor Vilant, the professor of mathematics in the university of St. Andrews. This situation was quite to his taste. "His thirst for literary distinction was intense; to fill the mathe matical chair in one of the universities, the high object of his ambition; to this the assistantship at St. Andrews might prove a stepping-stone." This prospect influenced his literary ardour to the ut |