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CHAPTER III. 



THE LAST EDINBURGH PERIOD. 



THE life of Hugh Miller, so varied and eventful in its 

 early period, formed no exception, in the ten years 

 preceding its close, to that placid uniformity which pro- 

 verbially characterizes the lives of literary men, and 

 which precludes detailed description. 



During those years he conducted the Witness with 

 steady and ever-broadening success, speaking his weighty 

 word on every important question as it arose, and widely 

 accepted as a guide of opinion, mis views on the sub- 

 ject of education were in advance of those of the body of 

 his contemporaries, especially his ecclesiastical contem- 

 poraries. He maintained them with his usual courage 

 and frankness, careless of the bitter obloquy to which 

 they exposed him in some quarters. The state of public 

 opinion at this moment proves that the conclusions at 

 which he arrived have become in substance those of the 

 nation. He advocated the exclusion of denominational- 

 ism from the machinery of popular education, and the 

 method by which he proposed to effect this object was 

 that of intrusting the power in connection with educa- 

 tion to the body of the people. It is scarce necessary 

 to remark that the very idea of excluding the Bible 



