454 MAN OF SCIENCE. 



should be that of a mason or mechanic, he should 

 exercise it to the glory of God." " You have," he was 

 pleased to add, " such a gift ; go and use it, and God 

 will open spheres of usefulness to you." 



'The last conversation I had with him was in the 

 early autumn of the year before his decease. He was 

 completing his last work, The Testimony of the Rocks, 

 and we went over the topics discussed in it. I was 

 struck then, as I ever was, with his powerful memory and 

 his special acquaintance with the English literature of 

 last century I suspect it was the literature most 

 accessible to him in his younger years. He could quote 

 verbatim long passages from the poets of that epoch, 

 illustrating points casting up in the conversation. As 

 we took the usual walk through his museum he freely 

 allowed that the apparent breaks between the various 

 geological epochs and animals were being fast filled up 

 by new geological discoveries, and showed me some 

 examples as we went along. It was evident to me that 

 he was setting himself to a thorough grappling with 

 these facts, and to a consideration of their relation to 

 the great truths of natural and revealed religion. Often 

 do some of us wish that he had been spared to take his 

 place in the more formidable conflicts of these times. 



' In common with not a few others, I looked on Hugh 

 Miller as the greatest Scotchman left after Thomas 

 Chalmers fell. These two men differed in many points, 

 but they were essentially kindred spirits : they were 

 alike in their high aims ; in their lofty genius ; in the 

 moving power of their writings ; in their partiality for 

 the study of the works of God ; in their deep reverence 

 for the word of God ; in their desire to unite science 

 and religion, and attachment to the principles of the 

 Church of Scotland. What Chalmers did for the older 



