156 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS thought he "could," perhaps, find private teaching to support him, till he could fall into some other way of doing. He had now totally abandoned all thoughts of entering the ministry. Carlyle removed to Edinburgh in November, 1818. His prospects were for some time dubious ; he even entertained the idea of emigrating to America. Ultimately, however, he obtained fairly regular and well-paid private teaching. An introduction to Dr. (afterward Sir David) Brewster, the editor of the " Edin- burgh Encyclopaedia," led to his writing articles, chiefly biographical and geographi- cal, for that work, at " bread-and-butter wages," and subsequently to his trans- lating Legendre's " Elements of Geometry " from the French for 50. At the beginning of the session of 1819, he enrolled in the class of Scots Law, with the intention of becoming an advocate. But he found law as uncongenial a study as divinity. Till 1822 he lived in various lodgings in Edinburgh, finding his chief relief from tutorial drudgery in visits to his parents in Dumfriesshire. His health, which had suffered from too close application to study, was at times " most miserable ; " he was in a low fever for two weeks, " was harassed by sleeplessness," and began to be tortured by his life-long foe, dyspepsia. At the same time his mind was perplexed with doubt on religious matters, regarding which he seems to have unburdened himself solely to Irving, who was then as- sistant to Dr. Chalmers, in Glasgow. For a period he was "totally irreligious." This struggle terminated in June, 182 1, "all at once," and when he was walking along Leith Walk (the Rue St. Thomas de l'Enfer of " Sartor Resartus "), in what he regarded as his " spiritual new birth." He was now absorbed in Ger- man literature, especially the writings of Schiller and Goethe. The latter, indeed, had a more abiding influence on him than any other author. In June, 182 1, also, occurred his introduction, through Irving, to Miss Jane Baillie Welsh (1801-66), only daughter of Dr. John Welsh, medical practitioner in Haddington, who had died two years before, leaving his daughter sole heiress of the small estate of Craigenputtock, sixteen miles from the town of Dumfries. Miss Welsh, who was descended through her father from John Knox, was then living in Haddington with her mother, who claimed kindred with the patriot Wallace, and; according to Carlyle, " narrowly missed being a woman of genius." Miss Welsh had been the private pupil of Irving when he was a teacher in Had- dington, and the result of the acquaintance thus brought about was a passionate attachment. They would, indeed, have been married, but for Irving's engage- ment to Miss Martin. The introduction of Carlyle to Miss Welsh, then twenty years of age, led to a correspondence between them on literary matters. After a time, Carlyle attempted to adopt the tone of a lover. This, however, she per- emptorily forbade, although she refused other suitors. Early in 1822, Irving, who was on the point of entering on the pastorate of the Caledonian Chapel, in Hatton Garden, London, recommended Carlyle as tutor to the three sons of Mr. Buller, a retired Anglo-Indian. The salary offered was ^200 a year. Carlyle, who had previously declined the editorship of a Dun- dee newspaper, accepted the offer; and two of the three, Charles Buller and Ar-
