Thomas Chalmers

Anstruther on the Fife coast was the birthplace of Thomas Chalmers on 17th March 1780. His father was a prosperous businessman in the town and Thomas grew up as a member of a large family of 14 children, nine brothers and five sisters. He was the sixth. At the age of three, he went to the local parish school. Of him, at about 10 years of age, it is reported that he was "one of the idlest, strongest, merriest, and most generous-hearted boys in Anstruther school". Amongst his fellows one would distinguish "one boy above the rest ... who is the leader in their sports--strong, active, merry and boisterous, with big head, matted dark hair, large plain features, broad shoulders, well-proportioned but brawny limbs, his laugh always loudest, and his figure always foremost at football and the other games in which they are contending".

His parents were people of strong religious conviction, Calvinist in their theology and keen that their family should grow up to view Christianity from that position. Although he respected them, as he grew up he did not accept every aspect of this theology in his earlier years
Before he was 12, he had completed his schooling and had moved on to study at the University of St Andrews. His brother, William, who was just 13, accompanied him. It is difficult to understand how they regarded the venture as they would not readily appreciate the aims and purposes of university education.

Thomas was the second-youngest student at St Andrews at that time. "He was at that time very young, and volatile, and boyish, and idle in his habits,... but ill-prepared by previous education for reaping the full benefit of a college course.... During the first two sessions a great part of his time must have been occupied in boyish amusements, such as golf, football and particularly hand- ball, in which latter he was remarkably expert, owing to his being left-handed. I remember that he made no distinguished progress in his education during these two sessions." Affectionate and reliable, he was respected by his friends at the University.

During his third year at St Andrews, Thomas began to demonstrate the great intellectual power which was to be one of his chief characteristics throughout adult life. For mathematics he developed special enthusiasm and to its study he gave himself with great energy and dedication. This deep interest was related to the able teaching of Dr James Brown, of whom Chalmers later wrote, "Of all the professors and instructors with whom I have ever had to do, he is the one who most powerfully impressed me, and to the ascendency of whose mind over me, I owe more in the formation of my tastes and habits, and in the guidance and government of my literary life, than to that of all the other academic men whose classes I ever attended".

Ethics and politics were also themes of special interest to him and he sympathised readily with political views more radical than those of his Anstruther home and felt too, that the religion in which he had been brought up "was a religion of confinement and intolerance, unworthy of consideration by a mind enlightened and enlarged by liberal studies". However, in 1795, desirous of becoming a minister, and so fulfilling boyhood dreams, without the fuller spirit of understanding of the purpose of the ministry, he was enrolled as a student of Divinity. That session, he studied little Theology, but having recently learned sufficient French to use the language for study, he continued his researches into mathematics. At his entry into the Divinity Faculty, he was only 15 years of age. Towards the end of the session he was deeply stirred by the power of the writings of Jonathan Edwards and came to an intellectual grasp of the magnificence of the Godhead and of the subordination of all things to His one great purpose.

During these years another part of his great talent began to come into prominence. On entry to the University his knowledge of English orthography and grammar was very defective, but after two years of study, there was a perceptible change. The gifts of powerful, intense and sustained expression revealed themselves with freedom, spontaneity and beauty. Student Debating Societies, class discourses and daily prayers in the University were all enriched by his tasteful, capable and eloquent participation.

By 1798, having just reached the age of 18, he had completed his course of studies at the University of St Andrews. The foundations were laid for his future development. "The intensity of his nature, the redundant energy that hardly knew fatigue, the largeness of his view, the warmth of his affection, the independence of his judgement, and the gushing impetuosity of his style, were manifest from these college days."

His activities during the following five years were varied. He was not yet sufficiently mature to be licensed as a preacher of the Gospel. For several rather unhappy months, he was private tutor to a family with 10 children. In July 1799, he was licensed as a probationer after a special dispensation exempted him from the qualifying condition of having reached the age of 21. The following month, he preached his first sermons in Wigan and Liverpool.

James, elder brother of Thomas by some eight years, wrote his father on the 3rd September about these sermons. "it is impossible for me to form an opinion of Thomas as yet; but the sermon he gave us in Liverpool, which was the same as we had in Wigan, was, in general, well liked. His mode of delivery is expressive, his language beautiful, and his arguments very forcible and strong. His sermon contained a due mixture both of the doctrinal and practical parts of religion, but I think it inclined rather more to the latter. The subject, however, required it. It is the opinion of those who pretend to be judges, that he will shine in the pulpit, but as yet he is rather awkward in his appearance. We, however, are at some pains in adjusting his dress, manner, etc., but he does not seem to pay any great regard to it himself. His mathematical studies seem to occupy more of his time than the religious."

Thomas returned to Edinburgh after the visit to England and spent the next two winters there attending courses at the University in Mathematics, Chemistry, Natural and Moral Philosophy and Political Economy. In 1801, a college friend encouraged him to become assistant to the minister of Cavers, a parish in Roxburghshire, a few miles south of Hawick. Arrangements were eventually completed for him to go there, but even before this he had obtained the promise of the presentation to the parish of Kilmany in Fife by a majority of the votes of the professors at the University of St Andrews. During the winter of 1801-2, a post as Assistant in the Mathematics Department fell vacant at St Andrews and Thomas resolved to seek it. In April, he left the pariah for a few weeks, went to St Andrews and was given the post at the University as well as having confirmed the offer of the parish in Kilmany. His stay in Cavers ended in September. "The duties of this office he discharged for about a year with fair regularity and diligence, but without hard work, and without his showing any lively interest in the objects of his ministry.

In November, Thomas Chalmers entered on his duties as a lecturer in Mathematics in St Andrews and was also elected to the living of Kilmany, his ordination and induction to take place in May 1803. Meanwhile, he threw himself into the work of teaching Mathematics with unbounded enthusiasm. In one of his earliest lectures, he set about removing possible obstacles. "The most elevated doctrines of geometry lie open to the inquiries of any ordinary mind ... for in the process of a mathematical discussion there is ... no interval which it requires the gigantic stride of a superior genius to cross. Are there any among you, gentlemen, who labour under the discouraging impression that nature has unfitted you for an effectual prosecution of the science--that she forbids the attempt as hopeless and unavailing? I lament the impression as unfortunate."

As a teacher, he aroused the enthusiasm of his students. One of them later commented, "Under his extraordinary management, the study of Mathematics was felt to be hardly less a play of the fancy than a labour of the intellect--the lessons of the day being continually interspersed with applications and illustrations of the most lively nature, so that he secured in a singular manner the confidence and attachment of his pupils".

But there were those who opposed him. When the Professor, whose substitute Chalmers was, gave certificates to Chalmers' students without communicating with his assistant, Chalmers denounced him at the public examination of his classes at the end of the session. The Professor neither forgot nor forgave.

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