Educated at Edinburgh University, Carlyle hoped to enter the ministry, but lost faith in the foundations of Christianity and trained as a mathematics teacher instead. His love of German literature led to his translations of Goethe, Hoffmann, and Tieck, which are now regarded as masterpieces. Carlyle's work is difficult to categorise; he was neither a philosopher, poet nor novelist, and more than a critic. His work 'The French Revolution' presents historical facts, but also sets out to question the nature of the facts historians deal with. Carlyle was influential in the establishment of the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1856, and he died just too early to witness the inauguration of the similar institution, a Scottish National Portrait Gallery, which he had firmly advocated.