Alexander Carlyle

Alexander Carlyle (26 January 1722 – 28 August 1805) was a Scottish church leader, and autobiographer. He went by the nickname of "Jupiter Carlyle", on account of his personal appearance. His autobiography is of particular interest for the background it provides to understanding the Scottish Enlightenment. In his autobiography, Carlyle recalls the Porteous Riots of 1736, and his friendship with Adam Smith, David Hume, Charles Townshend and John Home, the dramatist, for witnessing the performance of whose tragedy Douglas he was censured in 1757. Carlyle was a member of The Poker Club, whose members included many of the leading figures of the Enlightenment.

Life
Alexander Carlyle was born in Cummertrees, Dumfriesshire, the son of the local minister, and brought up in Prestonpans, East Lothian. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh (M.A. 1743), Glasgow and Leiden. He was a witness to the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745, where he was part of the government Edinburgh militia. From 1748 until his death he was minister at Inveresk in Midlothian. He rose to eminence as leader of the moderate or "broad" Church section, and as Moderator of the General Assembly in 1770 and Dean of the Chapel Royal in 1789. As an ecclesiastical leader, he was closely associated with William Robertson, Principal of the Uniiversity of Edinburgh.

"The celebrated Dr Hutchison0 of Glasgow, who was the first that distinguished himself in that important branch of literature, was now beginning his career, and had drawn ample stores from the ancients, which he im- proved into system, and embellished by the exertions of an ardent and virtuous mind. He was soon followed by [[Adam Smith|Smith, who had been his scholar, and sat for some years in his chair ; by Ferguson at Edinburgh ; by Reid and Beattie, which last was more an orator than a philosopher; together with David Hume, whose works, though dangerous and heretical, illustrated the science, and called forth the exertions of men of equal genius and sounder principles."