488 MAN OF SCIENCE. 



all of us who are still counting the hours, the truth is a 

 solemn one ; to those who mourn for their dead, it 

 ought not to be a distressing one. It is only to our 

 narrow human view that anything is lost or wasted. 

 God gave the mind to do a certain work, and withdrew 

 it when that work was done ; we, poor innocents, may 

 fancy that something else should have been done ; so 

 assuredly, in all cases, it should ; but in no special and 

 separate instance can we say, here is a destiny pe- 

 culiarly broken, here a work peculiarly unfulfilled. I 

 read that God will say to his good servants, " Well 

 done," but not, " Enough done." It is only He who 

 judges of and appoints that " enough." 



' Pardon me if I pain you by dwelling on this, but I 

 know that many persons do not feel this generalness in 

 human shortcoming ; we are all too apt to think every- 

 thing has been right if a man lives to be old, and 

 everything lost if he dies young. 



' I have not been able to look much at the book 

 yet, but it seems a noble bequest to us. 



'Believe me, my dear Madam, always respectfully 

 and faithfully yours, 



' J. RUSKIN.' 



I was personally acquainted with Hugh Miller only 

 in the few last years of his life. I knew that my rela- 

 tives in the Highlands were on terms of intimate friend- 

 ship with him, and that I could be introduced to him 

 whenever I chose ; but I had a vague feeling that I 

 could know him most advantageously by thoroughly 

 studying one or more of his books. I used to attend 

 the lectures delivered in connection with the Edin- 

 burgh Philosophical Institution, and it was on its 

 platform that I first had full view and hearing of 



