498 MAN OF SCIENCE. 



assented to the proposition that the relationship of 

 men to Christ is a matter of infinitely more consequence 

 than their relationship to Adam. 



I had not much intercourse with Hugh Miller, but, 

 such as it was, I treasure the recollection of it with 

 reverent affection. Here was a man to inspire infinite 

 trust, a sterling, incorruptible man, with whom one 

 would like to stand shoulder to shoulder in the eddies 

 of a stubborn fray. Incapable of malignity, his sympa- 

 thetic sensibility vibrating in fine response to every 

 touch of right sentiment, his intellectual interest playing 

 over the whole field of human life and every province of 

 nature, he had only to be known in order to be loved. 

 He was very gentle, very kind, but you felt that, in the 

 calm background of his mind, like a lion slumbering 

 by a rock, slumbering but not asleep, lay a grand sense 

 of moral rectitude, which, if wrong was threatened or 

 baseness done, could spring forth in crashing ire. 



I can now see that my impressions of him, not in- 

 correct so far as they went, were essentially first impres- 

 sions. With this biography I have been fitfully engaged 

 for ten years, often interrupted in the work, and forced 

 to go again and again over the same ground. The 

 delay may have been in some respects inconvenient, but 

 it has had the advantage of making me live all these 

 years in constant converse with Hugh Miller. Nothing, 

 I believe, of considerable importance, which he did, 

 said, thought, or felt, has escaped me, although, of 

 course, it was only a portion of those materials which 

 could be used in this book. The better I have known, 

 the more deeply have I revered, the more entirely have 

 I loved him, A man of priceless worth ; fine gold, 

 purified sevenfold ; delicate splendour of honour, sens- 

 itive and proud ; perfect sincerity and faithfulness in 



