rts of this
book, especially the account of the pilgrimages to
Stratford-on-Avon, and the Leasowes, and Olney, and other places
memorable for their literary associations, are as fine pieces of
descriptive writing as the English language possesses. This magic
of style characterized all his works, whether those of a more
popular kind, or his scientific treatises, such as the "Old Red
Sandstone," and "Footprints of the Creator," a volume suggested by
the "Vestiges of Creation," and subversive of the fallacies of that
superficial and plausible book. Not one of the authors of our day
has approached Hugh Miller as a master of English composition, for
the equal of which we must go back to the times of Addison, Hume,
and Goldsmith. Other living writers have now a wider celebrity, but
they owe it much to the peculiarities of their style or the
popularity of their topics. Mr. Miller has taken subjects of
science, too often rendered dry and repulsive, and has thrown over
them an air of attractive romance. His writings on literature,
history, and politics, are known to comparatively few, from having
appeared in the columns of a local newspaper. A judicious selection
from his miscellaneous articles in the _Witness_ would widely
extend his fame, and secure for him a place, in classic English
literature, as high as he held during his life as a periodical
writer and as a scientific geologist.

The personal appearance of Mr. Miller, or "Old Red," as he was
familiarly named by his scientific friends, will not be forgotten
by any who have seen him. A head of great massiveness, magnified by
an abundant profusion of sub-Celtic hair, was set on a body of
muscular compactness, but which in later years felt the undermining
influence of a life of unusual physical and mental toil. Generally
wrapped in a bulky plaid, and with a garb ready for any work, he
had the appearance of a shepherd from the Rosshire hills rather
than an author and a man of science. In conversation or in
lecturing, the man of original genius and cultivated mind at once
shone out, and his abundant information and philosophical acuteness
were only less remarkable than his amiable disposition, his
generous spirit, and his consistent, humble piety. Literature and
science have lost in him one of their b