IV. HXJGH MILLER. 



from the author to publish an American edition of his 

 *' Foot-prints of the Creator," for which he has most liberally 

 furnished the publishers with the admirable woodcuts of the 

 original. 



"While preparing some additional chapters, and various 

 notes illustrative of certain points alluded to incidentally in 

 this work, it was deemed advisable to preface it with a short 

 biographical notice of the author. I had already sketched 

 such a paper, when I became acquainted with a full memoir 

 of this remarkable man, containing most interesting details 

 of his earlier life, written by that eminent historian of the 

 " Martyrs of Science," the great natural philosopher of Scot- 

 land. It has occurred to me that, owing to the frequent 

 references which I could not avoid to my own researches, 

 I had better substitute this ample Biography for my short 

 sketch, wdth such alterations and additions as the connection 

 in which it is brought here would require. I therefore pro- 

 ceed to introduce our author with Sir David Brewster*s own 

 words : — 



Of all the studies which relate to the material universe, 

 there is none, perhaps, which appeals so powerfully to our 

 senses, or which comes into such close and immediate contact 

 with our wants and enjoyments, as that of Geology. In our 

 hourly walks, whether on business or for pleasure, we tread 

 with heedless step upon the apparently uninteresting objects 

 which it embraces ; but could we rightly interrogate the 

 rounded pebble at our feet, it would read us an exciting 

 chapter on the history of primeval times, and would tell us 

 of the convulsions by which it was wrenched from its parent 

 rock, and of the floods by which it was abraded and trans- 

 ported to its present humble locality. In our visit to the 

 picturesque and the sublime in nature, we are brought into 

 closer proximity to the more interesting phenomena of Geo- 

 logy. In the precipices which protect our rock girt shores, 



