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."

Let us look back upon that work. We by no means aim at giving a
calm, well weighed, and deeply pondered estimate of it, but only
such a glance as the circumstances permit and require. His great
and special work was his advocacy of the principles of the Free
Church. Mr. Miller was _par excellence_ the popular expounder and
defender of these principles, whe