ncurrence 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, i