Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

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THE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS;

Or,

Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed.

by

HUGH MILLER

* * * * *

WORKS BY HUGH MILLER,

PUBLISHED BY

GOULD AND LINCOLN,

59 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON.

I.

THE OLD RED SANDSTONE; OR, NEW WALKS IN AN OLD FIELD.

Illustrated with Plates and Geological Sections. 12mo, cloth. Price
$1.00.

"It is withal one of the most beautiful specimens of English
composition to be found, conveying information on a most difficult
and profound science, in a style at once novel, pleasing and
elegant."--DR. SPRAGUE, ALBANY SPECTATOR.

II.

MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND AND ITS PEOPLE.

With a fine Engraving of the Author. 12mo, cloth. Price $1.00.

A thrillingly interesting and instructive book of travels;
presenting the most perfectly life-like views of England and its
People to be found in the language.

III.

THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE CREATOR; OR, THE ASTEROLEPIS OF STROMNESS.

With numerous Illustrations. With a Memoir of the Author, by Louis
Agassiz. 12mo, cloth. Price $1.00.

Dr. Buckland said HE WOULD GIVE HIS LEFT HAND TO POSSESS SUCH
POWERS OF DESCRIPTION AS THIS MAN.

IV.

MY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS; OR, THE STORY OF MY EDUCATION.

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

With a full length Portrait of the Author. 12mo, cloth. Price $1.25.

This is a personal narrative of a deeply interesting and
instructive character, concerning one of the most remarkable men of
the age. It should be read and studied by every young man in the
land.

V.

TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS;

OR, GEOLOGY IN ITS BEARINGS ON THE TWO THEOLOGIES, NATURAL AND REVEALED.

"Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field."--JOB.

With numerous elegant Illustrations. One volume, royal 12mo. Price $1.25.

This is the largest and most comprehensive geological work of this
distinguished author. It exhibits the profound learning, the
felicitous style, and the scientific perception, which characterize
his former works, while it embraces the latest results of
geological discovery. But the great charm of the book lies in those
passages of glowing eloquence, in which, having spread out his
facts, the author proceeds to make deductions from them of the most
striking and exciting character.

* * * * *

--> The above works may be had in sets of uniform size and style of binding.

VALUABLE WORKS.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER: A VIEW OF THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES OF MODERN SOCIETY, and the Result of Labor, Capital, and Skill. By CHARLES KNIGHT. American edition, with Additions, by DAVID A. WELLS, Editor of "Annual of Scientific Discovery," &c. With numerous Illustrations. 12mo, cloth. $1.25.

This work is eminently entitled to be ranked in that class, styled,
"BOOKS FOR THE PEOPLE." The author is one of the most popular
writers of the day. "Knowledge is Power" treats of those things
Which "come home to the business and bosoms" of every man. It is
remarkable for its fullness and variety of information, and for the
felicity and force with which the author applies his facts to his
reasoning. The facts and illustrations are drawn from almost every
branch of skilful industry. It is a work which the mechanic and
artizan of every description will be sure to read with a RELISH.

This is a work of rare merit, and touches many strings of
importance with which society is linked together. No work we have
ever seen is better calculated to inspire and awaken inventive
genius in man than this. Almost every department of human labor is
represented, and it contains a large fund of useful information,
condensed in a volume, every chapter of which is worth the cost of
the book. It would be an act of manifest injustice to the community
for any editor to feel an indifference about commending this volume
to a reading public.--N.Y. CH. HERALD.

The style is admirable, and the book itself is as full of
information as an egg is of meat.--JOURNAL.

As teachers we know no better remuneration, than for them FIRST to
buy this book and diligently read it themselves; SECOND, to teach
to their pupils the principles of industrial organization which it
contains, and of the facts by which it is illustrated. It is one of
the merits of this book that its facts will interest youthful minds
and be retained to blossom hereafter into theories of which they
are now incapable. THIRD, endeavor to have a copy procured for the
district library, that the parents may read it, and the teachers
reap fruit in the present generation.--N.Y. TEACHER.

Contains a great amount of information, accompanied with numerous
illustrations, rendering it a compendious history of the subjects
upon which it treats.--N.Y. COURIER AND INQUIRER.

We commend the work as one of real value and profitable
reading.--ROCHESTER AMERICAN.

This work is a rich repository of valuable information on various
subjects, having a bearing on the industrial end social interests
of a community.--PURITAN RECORDER.

MY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS; OR, THE STORY OF MY EDUCATION. BY HUGH MILLER, author of "Old Red Sandstone," "Footprints of the Creator," "My First Impressions of England," etc. 12mo, cloth. $1.25.

"This autobiography is quite worthy of the renowned author. His
first attempts at literature, and his career until he stood forth
an acknowledged power among the philosophers and ecclesiastical
leaders of his native land, are given without egotism, with a power
and vivacity which are equally truthful and
delightsome."--PRESBYTERIAN.

"Hugh Miller is one of the most remarkable men of the age. Having
risen from the humble walks of life, and from the employment of a
stone-cutter, to the highest rank among scientific men, everything
relating to his history possesses an interest which belongs to that
of few living men. There is much even in his school-boy days which
points to the man as he now is. The book has all the ease and
graphic power which in characteristic of his writings."--NEW YORK
OBSERVER.

"This volume is a book for the ten thousand. It is embellished with
an admirable likeness of Hugh Miller, the stone mason--his coat off
and his sleeves rolled up--with the implements of labor in
hand--his form erect, and his eye bright and piercing. The
biography of such a man will interest every reader. It is a living
thing--teaching a lesson of self-culture of immense
value."--PHILADELPHIA CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

"It is a portion of autobiography exquisitely told. He is a living
proof that a single man may contain within himself something more
than all the books in the world, some unuttered word, if he will
look within and read. This is one of the best books we have had of
late, and must have a hearty welcome and a large circulation in
America."--LONDON CORRESP. N.Y. TRIBUNE.

"It is a work of rare interest; at times having the fascination of
a romance, and again suggesting the profoundest views of education
and of science. The ex-mason holds a graphic pen; a quiet humor
runs through his pages; he tells a story well, and some of his
pictures of home life might almost be classed with Wilson's."--NEW
YORK INDEPENDENT.

"This autobiography is THE book for poor boys, and others who are
struggling with poverty and limited advantages; and perhaps it is
not too much to predict that in a few years it will become one of
the poor man's classics, filling a space on his scanty shelf next
to the Autobiography of Franklin."--NEW ENGLAND FARMER.

"Lovers of the romantic should not neglect the book, as it contains
a narrative of tender passion and happily reciprocated affection,
which will be read with subdued emotion and unfailing
interest."--BOSTON TRAVELLER.

* * * * *

A Fern of the Lower Coal Measures.

(_Restored._)]

THE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS;

Or,

Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed.

by

HUGH MILLER,

Author of "The Old Red Sandstone," "Footprints of the Creator," Etc., Etc.

With Memorials of the Death and Character of the Author.

"Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field."--JOB.

Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 59 Washington Street. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman & Co. Cincinnati: George S. Blanchard. 1857.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by GOULD AND LINCOLN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

Electro-Stereotyped by Geo. J. Stiles, 23 Congress St., Boston.

TO

JAMES MILLER, ESQ., F.R.S.E.

PROFESSOR OF SURGERY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

MY DEAR SIR,

This volume is chiefly taken up in answering, to the best of its author's knowledge and ability, the various questions which the old theology of Scotland has been asking for the last few years of the newest of the sciences. Will you pardon me the liberty I take in dedicating it to you? In compliance with the peculiar demand of the time, that what a man knows of science or of art he should freely communicate to his neighbors, we took the field nearly together as popular lecturers, and have at least so far resembled each other in our measure of success, that the same class of censors have been severe upon both. For while you have been condemned as a physiologist for asserting that the human framework, when fairly wrought during the week, is greatly the better for the rest of the Sabbath, I have been described by the same pen as one of the wretched class of persons who teach that geology, rightly understood, does not conflict with revelation. Besides, I owe it to your kindness that, when set aside by the indisposition which renders it doubtful whether I shall ever again address a popular audience, you enabled me creditably to fulfil one of my engagements by reading for me in public two of the following discourses, and by doing them an amount of justice on that occasion which could never have been done them by their author. Further, your kind attentions and advice during the crisis of my illness were certainly every way suited to remind me of those so gratefully acknowledged by the wit of the last century, when he bethought him of

"kind Arbuthnot's aid,
Who knew his art, but not his trade."

And so, though the old style of dedication has been long out of fashion, I avail myself of the opportunity it affords me of expressing my entire concurrence in your physiological views, my heartfelt gratitude for your good services and friendship, and my sincere respect for the disinterested part you have taken in the important work of elevating and informing your humbler countryfolk,--while at the same time maintaining professionally, with Simpson and with Goodsir, the reputation of that school of anatomy and medicine for which the Scottish capital has been long so famous.

I am,

MY DEAR SIR,

With sincere respect and regard,

Yours affectionately,

HUGH MILLER.

TO THE READER.

Of the twelve following Lectures, four (the First, Second, Fifth, and Sixth) were delivered before the members of the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution (1852 and 1855). One (the Third) was read at Exeter Hall before the Young Men's Christian Association (1854), and the substance of two of the others (the Eleventh and Twelfth) at Glasgow, before the Geological Section of the British Association (1855). Of the five others,--written mainly to complete and impart a character of unity to the volume of which they form a part,--only three (the Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth) were addressed viva voce to popular audiences. The Third Lecture was published both in this country and America, and translated into some of the Continental languages. The rest now appear in print for the first time. Though their writer has had certainly no reason to complain of the measure of favor with which the read or spoken ones have been received, they are perhaps all better adapted for perusal in the closet than for delivery in the public hall or lecture-room; while the two concluding Lectures are mayhap suited to interest only geologists who, having already acquainted themselves with the generally ascertained facts of their science, are curious to cultivate a further knowledge with such new facts as in the course of discovery are from time to time added to the common fund. In such of the following Lectures as deal with but the established geologic phenomena, and owe whatever little merit they may possess to the inferences drawn from these, or on the conclusions based upon them, most of the figured illustrations, though not all, will be recognized as familiar: in the two concluding Lectures, on the contrary, they will be found to be almost entirely new. They are contributions, representative of the patient gleanings of years, to the geologic records of Scotland; and exhibit, in a more or less perfect state, no inconsiderable portion of all the forms yet detected in the rocks of her earlier Palæozoic and Secondary floras.

It will be seen that I adopt, in my Third and Fourth Lectures, that scheme of reconciliation between the Geologic and Mosaic Records which accepts the six days of creation as vastly extended periods; and I have been reminded by a somewhat captious critic that I once held a very different view, and twitted with what he terms inconsistency. I certainly did once believe with Chalmers and with Buckland that the six days were simply natural days of twenty-four hours each,--that they had compressed the entire work of the existing creation,--and that the latest of the geologic ages was separated by a great chaotic gap from our own. My labors at the time as a practical geologist had been very much restricted to the Palæozoic and Secondary rocks, more especially to the Old Red and Carboniferous Systems of the one division, and the Oolitic System of the other; and the long extinct organisms which I found in them certainly did not conflict with the view of Chalmers. All I found necessary at the time to the work of reconciliation was some scheme that would permit me to assign to the earth a high antiquity, and to regard it as the scene of many succeeding creations. During the last nine years, however, I have spent a few weeks every autumn in exploring the later formations, and acquainting myself with their peculiar organisms. I have traced them upwards from the raised beaches and old coast lines of the human period, to the brick clays, Clyde beds, and drift and boulder deposits of the Pleistocene era, and again from these, with the help of museums and collections, up through the mammaliferous crag of England, to its Red and its Coral crags. And the conclusion at which I have been compelled to arrive is, that for many long ages ere man was ushered into being, not a few of his humbler contemporaries of the fields and woods enjoyed life in their present haunts, and that for thousands of years anterior to even their appearance, many of the existing molluscs lived in our seas. That day during which the present creation came into being, and in which God, when he had made "the beast of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind," at length terminated the work by moulding a creature in his own image, to whom he gave dominion over them all, was not a brief period of a few hours' duration, but extended over mayhap millenniums of centuries. No blank chaotic gap of death and darkness separated the creation to which man belongs from that of the old extinct elephant, hippopotamus, and hyæna; for familiar animals such as the red deer, the roe, the fox, the wild cat, and the badger, lived throughout the period which connected their times with our own; and so I have been compelled to hold, that the days of creation were not natural, but prophetic days, and stretched far back into the bygone eternity. After in some degree committing myself to the other side, I have yielded to evidence which I found it impossible to resist; and such in this matter has been my inconsistency,--an inconsistency of which the world has furnished examples in all the sciences, and will, I trust, in its onward progress, continue to furnish many more.

EDINBURGH, DECEMBER, 1856.

[The last proofs of this preface were despatched by the Author to his printer only the day before that melancholy termination of his life, the details of which will be found in the "MEMORIALS" following.--AM. PUBLISHERS.]

CONTENTS.

PAGE
MEMORIALS OF THE DEATH AND CHARACTER OF HUGH MILLER, 7

LECTURE FIRST.

THE PALÆONTOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PLANTS, 33

LECTURE SECOND.

THE PALÆONTOLOGICAL HISTORY OF ANIMALS, 86

LECTURE THIRD.

THE TWO RECORDS, MOSAIC AND GEOLOGICAL, 141

LECTURE FOURTH.

THE MOSAIC VISION OF CREATION, 179

LECTURE FIFTH.

GEOLOGY IN ITS BEARINGS ON THE TWO THEOLOGIES. PART I. 211

LECTURE SIXTH.

GEOLOGY IN ITS BEARINGS ON THE TWO THEOLOGIES. PART II. 237

LECTURE SEVENTH.

THE NOACHIAN DELUGE. PART I. 283

LECTURE EIGHTH.

THE NOACHIAN DELUGE. PART II. 320

LECTURE NINTH.

THE DISCOVERABLE AND THE REVEALED, 362

LECTURE TENTH.

THE GEOLOGY OF THE ANTI-GEOLOGISTS, 392

LECTURE ELEVENTH.

ON THE LESS KNOWN FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLAND. PART I. 429

LECTURE TWELFTH.

ON THE LESS KNOWN FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLAND. PART II. 463

List of Illustrations

PAGE

A Restoration of Sphenopteris affinis (_Frontispiece_)

1. The Genealogy of Plants, 40

2. Cyclopteris Hibernicus, 42

3. Conifer of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, 43

4. The Genealogy of Animals, 45

5. Oldhamia antiqua (_oldest known Zoophyte_), 48

6. Palæochorda minor, 49

7. Lycopodium clavatum, 51

8. Equisetum fluviatile, 51

9. Osmunda regalis (_Royal Fern_), 52

10. Pinus sylvestris (_Scotch Fir_), 53

11. Calamite? of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, 55

12. Lycopodite? of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, 55

13. Fern? of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, 56

14-19. Ferns of the Coal Measures, 58

20. Altingia excelsa (_Norfolk Island Pine_), 59

21. East Indian Fern (_Asophila perrotetiana_), 60

22. Section of Stem, of Tree-Fern (_Cyathea_), 60

23-25. Lepidodendron Sternbergii, 62

26. Calamites Mougeotii, 63

27. Sphenophyllum dentatum, 63

28. Sigillaria reniformis, 64

29. Sigillaria reniformis (_nat. size_), 65

30. Sigillaria pachyderma, 66

31. Stigmaria ficoides, 67

32. Favularia tessellata, 68

33. Lepidodendron obovatum, 68

34. Cycas revoluta, 69

35. Zamia pungens, 69

36. Zamia Feneonis, 69

37. Mantellia nidiformis, 70

38. Equisetum columnare, 71

39. Carpolithes conica, 72

40. Carpolithes Bucklandii, 72

41. Acer trilobatum, 73

42. Ulmus Bronnii (_leaf of a tree allied to the Elm_), 74

43. Palmacites Lamanonis (_a Palm of the Miocene of Aix_), 75

44. Cyclophthalmus Bucklandii (_a Fossil Scorpion of the Coal
Measures of Bohemia_), 81

45. Fossil Dragon-Fly, 83

46. Cyathaxonia Dalmani, 88

47. Glyptocrinus decadactylus, 88

48. Calymene Blumenbachii, 89

49. Orthisina Verneuili, 89

50. Lituites cornu-arietis, 89

51. Lingula Lowisii, 89

52. Fort Jackson Shark (_Cestracion Philippi_), 91

53. The Genealogy of Fishes, 93

54. Amblypterus macropterus (_a Ganoid of the Carboniferous
System_), 94

55. Lebias cephalotes (_Cycloids of Aix_), 94

56. Platax altissimus (_a Ctenoid of Monte Bolca_), 95

57. Pterichthys oblongus, 98

58. Pleuracanthus lævissimus, 100

59. Carcharias productus (_Cutting Tooth_), 101

60. Placodus gigas (_Crushing Teeth_), 101

61. Vespertilio Parisiensis (_a Bat of the Eocene_), 106

62. Ichthyosaurus communis, 106

63. Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus, 108

64. Pterodactylus crassirostris, 108

65. Chelonia Benstedi, 109

66. Palæophis Toliapicus (_Ophidian of the Eocene_), 110

67. Bird-tracks of the Connecticut, 113

68. Fossil Footprint, 114

69. Thylacotherium Prevosti, 117

70. Anoplotherium commune, 120

71. Animals of the Paris Basin, 121

72. Dinotherium giganteum, 122

73. Elephas primigenius (_Great British Elephant_), 127

74. Trogontherium Cuvieri (_Gigantic Beaver_), 128

75. Ursus spelæus (_Cave Bear_), 128

76. Hyæena Spelæa (_Cave Hyæna_), 129

77. Asaphus caudatus, 134

78. Orthoceras laterale, 134

79. Spirigerina reticularis, 134

80. Ammonites margaritatus, 134

81. Ammonites bisulcatus, 134

82. Belemnitella mucronata, 134

83. Belemnites sulcatus, 134

84. Murex alveolatus, 135

85. Astarte Omalli, 135

86. Balanus crassus, 136

87. Astarte arctica, 152

88. Tellina proxima, 152

89. Norwegian Spruce (_Abies excelsa_), 153

90. Lepidodendron Sternbergii, 164

91. Calamites cannæformis, 165

92. Megatherium Cuvieri, 167

93. Skull of Dinotherium giganteum 168

94. Ammonites Humphriesianus, 242

95. Encrinites moniliformis, 243

96. Cupressocrinus crassius, 243

97. Pentacrinus fasciculosus, 245

98. Chamfered and Imbricated Scales, 246

99. Scale of Holoptychius giganteus, 247

100. Section of Scale of Holoptychius, 248

101. Sigillaria Groeseri, 255

102-104. Whorled Shells of the Old Red Sandstone, 256

105. Murchisonia bigranulosa, 258

106. Conularia ornata, 258

107. Calico pattern (_Manchester_), 259

108. Smithia Pengellyi, 259

109. Apamæean Medal, 298

110. Old Mexican Picture, 299

111. Megaceros Hibernicus (_Irish Elk_), 331

112. Mylodon robustus, 346

113. Glyptodon clavipes, 346

114. The Geography of Cosmas, 376

115. The Heavens and Earth of Cosmas, 377

116. Nummulites lævigata (_Pharaoh's Beans_), 421

117. Silurian Organism, Graptolite, etc., 431

118. Fucoid, 433

119. Fucoids, 434

120. Plant resembling Lycopodium clavatum, 437

121. Parka decipiens, 449

122. Fossil Fern (_probably_), 450

123. Unnamed Fossil Plant, 450

124. Cyclopterus Hibernicus, 458

125. New and peculiar Fern from Airdrie coal field, 464

126. Stigmaria, 465

127. The same, magnified, 465

128. Stigmaria, 466

129. Sphenopteris bifida, 470

130. Conifers? 475

131. Conifer Twigs, 476

132. Unnamed Fossil Plant, 478

133. Zamia, 479

134. Zamia, 480

135. Zamia of the Lias, 481

136. Zamia of the Oolite, 481

137. Zamia resembling Z. lanceolata, 482

138. Fossil Cone, 483

139. Fossil Cone, 484

140. Helmsdale Fossil Plants, 485

141. Fossil Ferns in Helmsdale Deposits, 486

142. Unnamed Fossil Plant, 488

143. Pecopteris obtusifolia, 489

144. Apparent Fern (_new_), 490

145. Pachypteris, 490

146. Phlebopteris, 491

147. Unnamed Fossil Plant, 492

148. Pentagon, illustrative of Fern allies, 493

149. Imbricated Stem, 494

150. Fossil Plant (_Helmsdale_), 495

151. Dicotyledonous Leaf of the Oolite, 496

152. Fern, 497

MEMORIALS

OF

HUGH MILLER.

Unknown he came. He went a Mystery-- A mighty vessel foundered in the calm, Her freight half-given to the world. To die He longed, nor feared to meet the great "I AM." Fret not. God's mystery is solved to him. He quarried Truth all rough-hewn from the earth, And chiselled it into a perfect gem-- A rounded Absolute. Twain at a birth-- Science with a celestial halo crowned, And Heavenly Truth--God's Works by His Word illumed-- These twain he viewed in holiest concord bound. Reason outsoared itself. His mind consumed By its volcanic fire, and frantic driven, He dreamed himself in hell and woke in heaven.

EDINBURGH, December, 1856.

MEMORIALS

OF THE

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF HUGH MILLER,

WITH AN

ACCOUNT OF HIS FUNERAL OBSEQUIES.

Near the end of last autumn the American publishers of Hugh Miller's works received from him, through his Edinburgh publishers, the offer of a new work from his pen. The offer was accepted and a contract was at once closed. Soon the advance sheets began to come; and as successive portions were received and perused, it became more and more evident that the work was destined not only to extend his fame, but to establish for him new and special claims to the admiration and gratitude of mankind. In the midst of these anticipations, and ere more than half the sheets had been received, the publishers and the public here were startled by the news that Mr. Miller had come to a violent death. The paragraph conveying the intelligence was such as to leave the mind in a state of painful suspense. But the next steamer from Europe brought full details of the lamentable event. It appeared that in a momentary fit of mental aberration he had died by his own hand, on the night of December 23d, 1856. The cause was over much brain-work. He had been long and incessantly engaged in preparing the present work for the press, when, just as he had given the last touches to the eloquent, the immortal record, reason abandoned her throne, and in the brief interregnum, that great light of science was quenched forever.

The event caused universal lamentation throughout the British Isles. It was treated as a public calamity. The British press, from the _London Times_ to the remotest provincial newspaper, gave expression to the general sorrow in strains of unwonted eloquence; and in so doing recounted his great services to the cause of science, and paid homage to his genius.

Some of the articles which the event thus called forth have seemed to the American publishers worthy of preservation, from the authentic facts which they embody, the judgments which they express, and the literary excellence by which they are marked. They have therefore determined to print them in connection with this work as permanent Memorials of its distinguished and lamented author.

The first piece appeared in the _Edinburgh Witness_ of December 27th, 1856,--the paper of which Mr. Miller had been the editor from its establishment in 1840. It presents an authentic account of the circumstances attending his death, and is understood to be from the pen of the REV. WILLIAM HANNA, L.L.D., the son-in-law and biographer of Dr. Chalmers, and sometime editor of the _North British Review_.

In the belief that nothing touching the character and memory of
such a man can be regarded with other than the deepest interest,
the friends of Mr. Hugh Miller have thought it due at once to his
great name and to the cause of truth, to lay fully before the
public a statement of the most mournful circumstances under which
he has departed from this life. For some months past his
over-tasked intellect had given evidence of disorder. He became the
prey of false or exaggerated alarms. He fancied--if, indeed, it was
a fancy--that occasionally, and for brief intervals, his faculties
quite failed him,--that his mind broke down. He was engaged at this
time with a treatise on the "Testimony of the Rocks," upon which he
was putting out all his strength,--working at his top-most pitch of
intensity. That volume will in a few weeks be in the hands of many
of our readers; and while they peruse it with the saddened
impression that his intellect and genius poured out their latest
treasures in its composition, they will search through it in vain
for the slightest evidence of feebleness or decaying power. Rather
let us anticipate the general verdict that will be pronounced upon
it, and speak of it as one of the ablest of all his writings. But
he wrought at it too eagerly. Hours after midnight the light was
seen to glimmer through the window of that room which within the
same eventful week was to witness the close of the volume, and the
close of the writer's life. This over-working of the brain began to
tell upon his mental health. He had always been somewhat moodily
apprehensive of being attacked by footpads, and had carried loaded
firearms about his person. Latterly, having occasion sometimes to
return to Portobello from Edinburgh at unseasonable hours, he had
furnished himself with a revolver. But now, to all his old fears as
to attacks upon his person, there was added an exciting and
over-mastering impression that his house, and especially that
Museum, the fruit of so much care, which was contained in a
separate outer building, were exposed to the assault of burglars.
He read all the recent stories of house robberies. He believed that
one night, lately, an actual attempt to break in upon his Museum
had been made. Visions of ticket-of-leave men, prowling about his
premises, haunted him by day and by night. The revolver, which lay
nightly near him, was not enough; a broad-bladed dagger was kept
beside it; whilst behind him, at his bed head, a claymore stood
ready at hand. A week or so ago, a new and more aggravated feature
of cerebral disorder showed itself in sudden and singular
sensations in his head. They came only after lengthened intervals.
They did not last long, but were intensely violent. The terrible
idea that his brain was deeply and hopelessly diseased,--that his
mind was on the verge of ruin,--took hold of him, and stood out
before his eye in all that appalling magnitude in which such an
imagination as his alone could picture it. It was mostly at night
that these wild paroxysms of the brain visited him; but up till
last Monday he had spoken of them to no one. A friend who had a
long conversation with him on the Thursday of last week, never
enjoyed an interview more, or remembers him in a more genial mood.
On the Saturday forenoon another friend from Edinburgh found him in
the same happy frame. As was his wont when with an old friend with
whom he felt particularly at ease, he read or recited some favorite
passages, repeating, on this occasion, with great emphasis, that
noble prayer of John Knox,[1] which, he told his friend, it had
been his frequent custom to repeat privately during the days of the
Disruption. On the forenoon of Sunday last he worshipped in the
Free Church at Portobello; and in the evening read a little work
which had been put into his hands, penning that brief notice of it
which will be read with melancholy interest as his last
contribution to this journal. About ten o'clock on Monday morning
he took what with him was an altogether unusual step. He called on
Dr. Balfour, in Portobello, to consult him as to his state of
health. "On my asking," says Dr. Balfour, in a communication with
which we have been favored, "what was the matter with him, he
replied, 'My brain is giving way. I cannot put two thoughts
together to-day. I have had a dreadful night of it; I cannot face
another such. I was impressed with the idea that my Museum was
attacked by robbers, and that I had got up, put on my clothes, and
gone out with a loaded pistol to shoot them. Immediately after that
I became unconscious. How long that continued, I cannot say; but
when I awoke in the morning I was trembling all over, and quite
confused in my brain. On rising I felt as if a stiletto was
suddenly, and as quickly as an electric shock, passed through my
brain from front to back, and left a burning sensation on the top
of the brain just below the bone. So thoroughly convinced was I
that I must have been out through the night, that I examined my
trousers to see if they were wet or covered with mud, but could
find none.' He further said,--'I may state that I was somewhat
similarly affected through the night twice last week, and I
examined my trousers in the morning to see if I had been out. Still
the terrible sensations were not nearly so bad as they were last
night; and I may further inform you, that towards the end of last
week, while passing through the Exchange in Edinburgh, I was seized
with such a giddiness that I staggered, and would, I think, have
fallen, had I not gone into an entry, where I leaned against the
wall, and became quite unconscious for some seconds.'" Dr. Balfour
stated his opinion of the case; told him that he was over-working
his brain, and agreed to call on him on the following day to make a
fuller examination. Meanwhile the quick eye of affection had
noticed that there was something wrong, and on Monday forenoon Mrs.
Miller came up to Edinburgh to express her anxiety to Professor
Miller, and request that he would see her husband. "I arranged,"
says Professor Miller, "to meet Dr. Balfour at Shrub Mount (Mr.
Hugh Miller's house), on the afternoon of next day. We met
accordingly at half-past three on Tuesday. He was a little annoyed
at Mrs. Miller's having given me the trouble, as he called it, but
received me quite in his ordinary kind, friendly manner. We
examined his chest and found that unusually well; but soon we
discovered that it was head symptoms that made him uneasy. He
acknowledged having been, night after night, up till very late in
the morning, working hard and continuously at his new book,
'which,' with much satisfaction, he said, 'I have finished this
day.' He was sensible that his head had suffered in consequence, as
evidenced in two ways: first, occasionally he felt as if a very
fine poignard had been suddenly passed through and through his
brain. The pain was intense, and momentarily followed by confusion
and giddiness, and the sense of being 'very drunk,'--unable to
stand or walk. He thought that a period of unconsciousness must
have followed this,--a kind of swoon,--but he had never fallen.
Second, what annoyed him most, however, was a kind of nightmare,
which for some nights past had rendered sleep most miserable. It
was no dream, he said; he saw no distinct vision, and could
remember nothing of what had passed accurately. It was a sense of
vague and yet intense horror, with a conviction of being abroad in
the night wind, and dragged through places as if by some invisible
power. 'Last night,' he said, 'I felt as if I had been ridden by a
witch for fifty miles, and rose far more wearied in mind and body
than when I lay down.' So strong was his conviction of having been
out, that he had difficulty in persuading himself to the contrary,
by carefully examining his clothes in the morning, to see if they
were not wet or dirty; and he looked inquiringly and anxiously to
his wife, asking if she was sure he had not been out last night,
and walking in this disturbed trance or dream. His pulse was quiet,
but tongue foul. The head was not hot, but he could not say it was
free from pain. But I need not enter into professional details.
Suffice it to say that we came to the conclusion that he was
suffering from an over-worked mind, disordering his digestive
organs, enervating his whole frame, and threatening serious head
affection. We told him this, and enjoined absolute discontinuance
of work, bed at eleven, light supper (he had all his life made that
a principal meal), thinning the hair of the head, a warm
sponging-bath at bed time, &c. To all our commands he readily
promised obedience, not forgetting the discontinuance of neck
rubbing, to which he had unfortunately been prevailed to submit
some days before. For fully an hour we talked together on these and
other subjects, and I left him with no apprehension of impending
evil, and little doubting but that a short time of rest and regimen
would restore him to his wonted vigor." It was a cheerful hour that
thus was passed, and his wife and family partook of the hopeful
feeling with which his kind friend, Professor Miller, had parted
with him. It was now near the dinner hour, and the servant entered
the room to spread the table. She found Mr. Miller in the room
alone. Another of the paroxysms was on him. His face was such a
picture of horror that she shrunk in terror from the sight. He
flung himself on the sofa, and buried his head, as if in agony,
upon the cushion. Again, however, the vision flitted by, and left
him in perfect health. The evening was spent quietly with his
family. During tea he employed himself in reading aloud Cowper's
"Castaway," the Sonnet on Mary Unwin, and one of his more playful
pieces, for the special pleasure of his children. Having corrected
some proofs of the forthcoming volume, he went up stairs to his
study. At the appointed hour he had taken the bath, but
unfortunately his natural and peculiar repugnance to physic had
induced him to leave untaken the medicine that had been prescribed.
He had retired into his sleeping-room,--a small apartment opening
out of his study, and which, for some time past, in consideration
of the delicate state of his wife's health, and the irregularity of
his own hours of study, he occupied at night alone,--and lain
sometime upon the bed. The horrible trance, more horrible than
ever, must have returned. All that can now be known of what
followed is to be gathered from the facts, that next morning his
body, half dressed, was found lying lifeless on the floor, the feet
upon the study rug, the chest pierced with the ball of the revolver
pistol, which was found lying in the bath that stood close by.[2]
The deadly bullet had perforated the left lung, grazed the heart,
cut through the pulmonary artery at its root, and lodged in the
rib in the right side. Death must have been instantaneous. The
servant by whom the body was first discovered, acting with singular
discretion, gave no alarm, but went instantly in search of the
doctor and minister; and on the latter the melancholy duty was
devolved of breaking the fearful intelligence to that now
broken-hearted widow, over whose bitter Borrow it becomes us to
draw the veil. The body was lifted and laid upon the bed. We saw it
there a few hours afterwards. The head lay back sideways on the
pillow. There was the massive brow, the firm-set, manly features,
we had so often looked upon admiringly, just as we had lately seen
them,--no touch nor trace upon them of disease,--nothing but that
overspread pallor of death to distinguish them from what they had
been. But the expression of that countenance in death will live in
our memory forever. Death by gunshot wounds is said to leave no
trace of suffering behind; and never was there a face of the dead
freer from all shadow of pain, or grief, or conflict, than that of
our dear departed friend. And as we bent over it, and remembered
the troubled look it sometimes had in life, and thought what must
have been the sublimely terrific expression that it wore at the
moment when the fatal deed was done, we could not help thinking
that it lay there to tell us, in that expression of unruffled,
majestic repose that sat upon every feature, what we so assuredly
believe, that the spirit had passed through a terrible tornado, in
which reason had been broken down; but that it had made the great
passage in safety, and stood looking back to us, in humble,
grateful triumph, from the other side.

On looking round the room in which the body had been discovered, a
folio sheet of paper was seen lying on the table. On the centre of
the page the following lines were written,--the last which that pen
was ever to trace:--

"DEAREST LYDIA,--My brain burns. I _must_ have _walked_; and a
fearful dream rises upon me. I cannot bear the horrible thought.
God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me. Dearest
Lydia, dear children, farewell. My brain burns as the recollection
grows. My dear, dear wife, farewell."

HUGH MILLER.

What a legacy of love to a broken-hearted family! and to us, and
all who loved him, how pleasing to observe, that in that
bewildering hour, when the horror of that great darkness came down
upon that noble spirit, and some hideous, shapeless phantom
overpowered it, and took from it even the capacity to discern the
right from the wrong, humility, and faith, and affection, still
kept their hold;--amid the ruins of the intellect, that tender
heart remaining still unbroken! These last lines remain as the
surest evidence of the mysterious power that laid his spirit
prostrate, and of the noble elements of which that spirit was
composed,--humble, and reverent, and loving to the last.

Yesterday, at the request of friends, and under the authority of
the Procurator-Fiscal, a _post mortem_ examination of the body took
place. We subjoin the result:--

"EDINBURGH, December 26, 1856.

"We hereby certify, on soul and conscience, that we have this day
examined the body of Mr. Hugh Miller, at Shrub Mount, Portobello.

"The cause of death we found to be a pistol-shot through the left
side of the chest; and this, we are satisfied, was inflicted by his
own hand.

"From the diseased appearances found in the brain, taken in
connection with the history of the case, we have no doubt that the
act was suicidal under the impulse of insanity."

JAMES MILLER, W.T. GAIRDNER, A.H. BALFOUR, A.M. EDWARDS.

We must ask to be excused from attempting any analysis of Mr.
Miller's character and genius, or any estimate of the distinguished
services he has rendered to literature, science, and the Christian
faith. His loss is too heavy a one,--his removal has come upon us
too suddenly and too awfully for mind or hand to be steady enough
for such a task. The voice of the public press has already told
what a place he had won for himself in the admiration and affection
of his countrymen; and for the delicate and tender way in which the
manner of his departure has universally been alluded to, were we
permitted to speak in the name of Mr. Miller's friends, we should
express our deepest gratitude. It is a beautiful and worthy tribute
that his brother journalists have rendered to the memory of one who
was a laborer along with them in elevating the talent and tone of
our newspaper literature.

As Free Churchmen, however, it would be unpardonable were we to
omit all reference, at such a time as this, to what he did on
behalf of the church of his adoption. Dr. Chalmers did not err
when, self-oblivious, he spake of Mr. Miller, as he so often did,
as the greatest Scotchman alive after Sir Walter Scott's death, and
as the man who had done more than all others to defend and make
popular throughout the country the non-intrusion cause. We know
well what the mutual love and veneration was of those two great men
for one another whilst living; and now that both are gone,--and
hereafter we believe still more so than even now,--their two names
will be intertwined in the grateful and admiring remembrance of the
ministers and members of the Free Church. It was die high honor of
the writer of these hurried lines to record the part taken by his
venerated relative in that great ecclesiastical struggle which
terminated in the Disruption. At that lime it was matter to him of
great regret that, as his office was that of the biographer, and
not of the historian, there did not occur those natural
opportunities of speaking of the part taken by Mr. Miller in that
struggle, of which he gladly would have availed himself. And he
almost wishes now that he had violated what appeared to him to be
his duty, in order to create such an opportunity. He feels as if in
this he had done some injustice to the dead,--an injustice which it
would gratify him beyond measure if he could now in any way repair,
by expressing it as his own judgment, and the judgment of the vast
body of his Church, that, next to the writings and actings of Dr.
Chalmers, the leading articles of Mr. Miller in this journal did
more than anything else to give the Free Church the place it holds
in the affections of so many of our fellow-countrymen.

But Mr. Miller was far more than a Free Churchman, and did for the
Christianity of his country and the world a far higher service than
any which in that simple character and office was rendered by him.
There was nothing in him of the spirit and temper of the sectarian.
He breathed too broad an atmosphere to live and move within such
narrow bounds. In the heat of the conflict there may have been too
much occasionally of the partisan; and in the pleasure that the
sweep and stroke of his intellectual tomahawk gave to him who
wielded it, he may have forgotten at times the pain inflicted where
it fell; but let his writings before and after the Disruption be
now consulted, and it will be found that it was mainly because of
his firm belief, whether right or wrong, that the interests of
vital godliness were wrapped up in it, that he took his stand, and
played his conspicuous part, in the ecclesiastical conflict. It is
well known that for some time past,--for reasons to which it would
be altogether unseasonable to allude,--he has ceased to take any
active part in ecclesiastical affairs. He had retired even, in a
great measure, from the field of general literature, to devote
himself to the study of Geology. His past labors in this
department,--enough to give him a high and honored place among its
most distinguished cultivators,--he looked upon but as his training
for the great life-work he had marked out for himself,--the full
investigation and illustration of the Geology of Scotland. He had
large materials already collected for this work; and it was his
intention, after completing that volume which has happily been left
in so finished a state, to set himself to their arrangement. The
friends of science in many lands will mourn over the incompleted
project which, however ably it may hereafter be accomplished by
another, it were vain to hope shall ever be so accomplished as it
should have been by one who united in himself the power of accurate
observation, of logical deduction, of broad generalization, and of
pictorial and poetic representation. But the friends of
Christianity cannot regret, that since it was the mysterious decree
of Heaven that he should prematurely fall,--his work as a pure
Geologist not half done,--he should have been led aside by the
publication of the Vestiges of Creation to that track of
semi-theological, semi-scientific research to which his later
studies and later writings have been devoted. That, as it now seems
to us, was the great work which it was given him on earth to
do,--to illustrate the perfect harmony of all that science tells us
of the physical structure and history of our globe, with all that
the Bible tells of the creation and government of this earth by and
through Christ Jesus our Lord. The establishment and exhibition of
that harmony was a task to which is it too much to say that there
was no man living so competent as he? We leave it to the future to
declare how much he has done by his writings to fulfil that task;
but mourning, as we now can only do, over his sad and melancholy
death,--to that very death, with all the tragic circumstances that
surround it, we would point as the closing sacrifice offered on the
altar of our faith. His very intellect, his reason,--God's most
precious gift,--a gift dearer than life,--perished in the great
endeavor to harmonize the works and word of the Eternal. A most
inscrutable event, that such an intellect should have been suffered
to go to wreck through too eager a prosecution of such a work. But
amid the mystery, which we cannot penetrate, our love, and our
veneration, and our gratitude, toward that so highly gifted and
truly Christian man shall only grow the deeper because of the cloud
and the whirlwind in which he has been borne off from our side.

On the 31st of December, two days after the obsequies had been
performed, Dr. Hanna resumed the subject in the following elevated
strain:

We have still but little heart to dilate on any political or
literary topic. Our thoughts can dwell on but one thrice melancholy
event. Need we name that event? Alas, no! It had occurred but a few
hours when the tidings of it struck our city with stunning,
stupefying, and deeply saddening blow. It has already thrilled our
whole land; and is on its way, through a hundred channels, to the
west, to the east, and to the south, carrying with it mourning and
lamentation throughout the vast area which is covered by the
language in which Hugh Miller wrote. Writing, as it were, amid the
deep shadows of the funeral chamber, and brought in a manner into
the very presence of the dead, we are made strongly to feel, and we
daresay our readers to a large extent will feel, too, the
nothingness of those discussions which usually occupy and engross
men. The weightiest matter that ever occupied the wisdom of cabinet
or the pen of journalist appears verily but fleeting and
transitory, when brought thus into prominent contrast with the
awful realities of human existence and destiny; and it is only when
reflection shows us that these matters are yet parts of a grand
Providential scheme, embracing man's happiness now, and entering
deeply into the question of his future and eternal well-being, that
we can see in them that amount of significance and importance which
they really possess.

From the firmament of British literature and science a great light
has departed. But yesterday we rejoiced in its beams, and now it
has set all suddenly and forever; and to us there remains but the
melancholy task of bewailing its departure, and tracing very
hastily and imperfectly its track. The intellectual powers of Hugh
Miller had certainly not declined. He was marked to the very last
by that wonderful robustness of mind which had characterized him
all through life. His sense was as manly, his judgment as sound and
comprehensive, his penetration as discriminating and deep, his
imagination as vigorous and bold, and his taste as pure and trusty,
as they had ever been. The whole of his great powers were found
working together up to the last week of his earthly career, with
their usually calm, noiseless strength, and finely balanced and
exquisitely toned harmony. We have evidence of this fact under his
own hand in recent numbers of the _Witness_. His last two articles
were, the one on Russia, and the other on our modern poets. The
former,--that on the resources of the Russian empire,--is
characterized by the same wide range of thinking, the same skill in
analysis, and the same power of grouping and arranging details, and
making them to throw light on some great principle, which usually
marked and notified his hand when employed on such subjects. The
latter,--that on the poets,--is rich and genial as usual,
betokening a full and unclouded recollection of all his early
reading in that department of our literature, abounding in the
finest touches of pathos and beauty, and redolent with a most
generous sympathy with kindred genius. It is not inconsistent with
what we have now stated, and it is the fact, that latterly the
inroads of disease, which had entrenched itself deeply in a
constitution originally strong, and which kept steadily advancing
upon the vital powers, had come so near the seat of the mind, that
for short intervals the noble spirit was sadly beclouded, and its
moral and intellectual action momentarily suspended. But, apart
from this, there seemed ground to believe that there was yet before
Mr. Miller much honorable and noble labor. The strong man, after
all his tasks, appeared to be still strong. His powers were
mellowing into richness and calm, matured strength; his conceptions
of great principles were growing yet wider; his store of facts,
literary as well as scientific, was accumulating with every busy
and laborious year that passed over him; and there did seem ground
to expect from his pen, unrivalled among his contemporaries in its
exquisite purity and calm power, many a deep thoughted article, and
many a profoundly reasoned and richly illustrated volume. We looked
to him for the solution of many a dark question in science; and we
certainly hoped, from that fine union of science and theology which
dwelt in him above all men, for a yet fuller and more complete
adjustment of the two great records of Creation,--that of the
Rocks, and that of Moses. But alas! all these hopes have suddenly
failed us. It seemed right otherwise to the Great Disposer of all.
He has said to his faithful servant, "Enough."