HUGH MILLER. 133 



1840. Of this turning-point in his career, he writes in his 

 autobiography : — ' I closed my connection with the bank at the 

 termination of its financial year ; gave a few weeks very 

 sedulously to geology, during which I was fortunate enough to 

 find specimens on which Agassiz has founded two of his fossil 

 species ; got, at parting, an elegant breakfast service of plate 

 from a kind and numerous circle of friends, of all shades of 

 politics and both sides of the Church ; and was entertained 

 at a public dinner, at which I attempted a speech, and got on 

 but indifferently, though it looked quite well enough in my 

 friend Mr. Carruthers' report, and which was, I suppose, in 

 some sort apologized for by the fiddlers, who struck up at its 

 close, "A man's a man for a' that." It was, I felt, not the 

 least gratifying part of the entertainment that old Uncle Sandy 

 was present, and that his health was cordially drunk by the 

 company in the recognised character of my best and earliest 

 friend. And then, taking leave of my mother and uncle, of 

 my respected minister and my honoured superior in the bank, 

 Mr. Ross, I set out for Edinburgh, and in a few days after was 

 seated at the editorial desk — a point at which, for the present, 

 the story of my education must terminate. I wrote for my 

 paper during the first twelvemonth a series of geological 

 chapters, which were fortunate enough to attract the notice of 

 the geologists of the British Association, assembled that year 

 at Glasgow, and which, in the collected form, compose my 

 little work on the Old Red Sandstone. The paper itself rose 

 rapidly in circulation, till it ultimately attained to its place 

 among what are known as our first-class Scottish newspapers ; 

 and of its subscribers, perhaps a more considerable proportion 

 of the whole are men who have received a university education 

 than can be reckoned by any other Scotch journal of the same 



