BIRTH OF HIS SON HUGH. 417 



to write so beautifully, and to be so clear in all his ex- 

 pressions, and how he can have been so extensive a 

 reader. He amazes me throughout, and I am not sur- 

 prised that Murchison and Agassiz should esteem and 

 consider him so highly as they evidently do. I long to 

 fly off to the north to see and hear him talk, and if he 

 talks as well as he writes, what must be the charm of 

 living with him ! " 



This note to his mother-in-law, on occasion of the 

 birth of his son Hugh, is worth printing on account of 

 the autobiographic touch respecting his own birth, and 

 the characteristically mournful reflection which follows. 







c 2, Stuart Street, Edinburgh, 4 o'clock, Thursday afternoon. 



' The doctor has just been with us, and he is well 

 pleased with the appearance of both mother and child. 

 Baby, in his introduction into the world, had a sore 

 struggle for life, and in pugilists' phrase, but with a 

 deeper meaning than theirs, was for about five minutes 

 " deaf to time." Accidents can scarce be hereditary ; 

 but my mother has told me that, when making my 

 dcibut, I refused to breathe for a still longer period. 

 Were all the future known to the little entrants such 

 refusals would, I dare say, be more common than they 

 are, and more doggedly persisted in.' 



Miller was particularly gratified by the terms in 

 which the gift of the Footprints was acknowledged by 

 Professor Owen, and quotes, in the following letter to a 

 lady, the passage in which the work was mentioned by 

 that eminent philosopher. 



' Unpopular as I supposed my little book was to 

 prove, the first thousand has gone off bravely, and I am 

 passing a second through the press. Some of the 



voi . IT. 27 



