HIS EXPERIENCE OF GRIEF. 67 



return by sea at this season, or by the Highland road ; 

 and if you come by the coast, Torres lies quite in your 

 way. And then, or never ! My only objection to your new 

 employment is, that it ties you down to Cromarty, so that 

 you cannot visit any of your friends a day's journey 



away The day is coming when the first people 



in the land will be desirous of seeing and being ac- 

 quainted with you/ 



Before writing the next letter, Miller heard that Miss 

 Dunbar had just lost by death two near relatives to 

 whom she was much attached. The thought of her 

 bereavement recalled to him his own sorrow for departed 

 friends, and in pensive mood, tenderly sympathetic, 

 deeply affectionate, he took pen in hand, and described 

 to her his experience of grief. If we would understand 

 the enthusiasm of love with which all who knew Hugh 

 Miller well regarded him, we ought to consider carefully 

 the heart-delineation of this letter. 



' Cromarty, March, 1835. 



' Intelligence of your sad bereavement reached me 

 through the medium of the newspapers ; I cannot ex- 

 press what I felt. I knew that your cup was full be- 

 fore, full to the brim ; but I saw that, regarding it as 

 mingled by your Father, you were resigned to drink. 

 Now, however, a new ingredient has been added, an 

 ingredient bitterer perhaps to a generous mind than any 

 of the others. To days of languor and nights of suffer- 

 ing, torn affections and blighted hopes have been added ; 

 and those relatives to whom the overcharged heart 

 naturally turns for solace and sympathy are equally in- 

 volved in misfortune. When we sit during the day in 

 a darkened chamber, we have but to throw open a case- 

 ment and the light comes pouring in ; but it is not so 



