234 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



usually close. Proof exists that Miller accomplished a 

 large proportion of what he at this period intended to 

 attempt. His autobiographical plans ultimately took 

 shape in the Schools and Schoolmasters. His letters on 

 the Herring Fishery will claim our attention in the 

 immediate sequel. The drawing of the old tower of 

 Fairburn, which we have been able to lay before the 

 reader, was probably one of several which he executed 

 about this time, but which having, as I surmise, been 

 given to friends, are lost. This drawing not only proves 

 him to have possessed considerable skill as a self-taught 

 draughtsman, but exhibits, in the opinion of Mr Ruskin, 

 some power of composition. The problems in practical 

 geometry were worked out and entered in a manuscript 

 book, as proposed. His description of the town and 

 parish of Cromarty was published in the Statistical 

 Account of Scotland, and is a most accurate, lucid, and 

 comprehensive performance. From all this we may 

 conclude that Hugh Miller, instead of being, as he calls 

 himself, volatile and indolent, has become a man of 

 singularly calm and resolute mind. He looks habit- 

 ually before and after ; calculates the force at his com- 

 mand ; and disposes it with strategic method for the 

 conduct of life's campaign. 



