214 EDITOR. 



he was conscious that the fray was not without its spec- 

 tators. ' The series of events which terminated in the 

 Disruption ' the words are his own ' formed a great 

 and intensely exciting drama, and the whole empire 

 looked on/ He shared the excitement of his country- 

 men ; but he also, it need scarcely be added, suffered 

 from it. Never did Hugh Miller toil as during these 

 first three months of his editorship of the Witness. He 

 wrote not merely the leading articles, but a large pro- 

 portion of the remarks introductory to the reports of 

 public meetings, paragraphs on the decease of eminent 

 men, and so on. The paper was published twice a 

 week, and Miller would often have more than one re- 

 gular leader in each number. His brother combatants, 

 his personal friends, the buzz of applause arising through- 

 out Scotland, cheered him on. In nothing was his tem- 

 perament more characteristically the temperament of a 

 man of genius of literary genius than in his suscep- 

 tibility to the influence of praise. It was once truly 

 said of him that ' he was like a horse which can be urged 

 by the voice of encouragement beyond its power of living 

 exertion/ Soon also the new paper was attacked by 

 one or other of its many rivals of the opposite side, and 

 with all his gentleness Miller was, when roused, a ter- 

 rible foe. Michelet holds that there is a trace of ferocity 

 in the artist's temperament. ' He is kindly he is fero- 

 cious. His heart is full of tenderness for the weak and 

 little. Give him orphans to watch over, he will watch 

 over them, and clasp them to his heart;' but set him at 

 defiance, touch a person or a principle which he honours, 

 and he glares on you with an eye like Apollo's on Mar- 

 syas, ' watching how the whetting sped/ Professor 

 Masson has remarked that Hugh Miller never engaged 

 in controversial battle without not merely ' slaying, 



