458 MAN OF SCIENCE. 



and peasant felt that he was one of themselves, and one 

 who (unlike some others sprung from their ranks) never 

 felt ashamed of them, or his connection with them. The 

 infidels knew him well, for many a hard blow had he 

 dealt them ; and they were obliged to respect while they 

 feared him. The religious community recognized him 

 as in certain departments the ablest, as he was the most 

 disinterested, defender of the faith. Scientific men re- 

 cognized in him one who could cope with them in their 

 own department, who knew the facts as well as they, 

 and could reason them out with greater power. Literary 

 men acknowledged in him a brother who could mould 

 a sentence or turn a period with the best of them. The 

 ablest and boldest man in the country would have felt 

 his knees shaking at the thought of engaging in a con- 

 troversy with the stone-mason. Even those who had 

 no learning relished him ; and some have earnestly 

 wished to be better scholars that they might under- 

 stand him ; and some have made themselves scholars 

 by spelling their way through his writings. Thinkers 

 in no way inclined to agree with him in his ecclesi- 

 astical or political opinions, took the Witness because 

 they liked to have thoughts awakened within them; 

 and even those who were not particularly disposed to 

 think read his writings for the sake of their pictorial 

 power and noble sentiment. One of the most distin- 

 guished assemblies I ever looked on met in the City 

 Hall of Glasgow in September, 1855, to hear the open- 

 ing Address of the President, the Duke of Argyll, to 

 the British Association for the Promotion of Science. 

 There were present a very large number of the savans 

 of the age, and mingling with them a number of others 

 quite sufficient to make the audience a singularly pro- 

 miscuous one, shrewd merchants who traded with the 



