HUGH MILLER. 137 



particularly good — wholly wanting in flattery, but full of gentle 

 deference. 



The greater portion of Hugh Miller's autobiography 

 appeared in the Witness in 1853; it was published in the 

 beginning of 1854, under the title of My Schools and School- 

 masters. In the spring of 1854, he lectured in Exeter Hall 

 to the Young Men's Christian Association. His autumn 

 holiday he always spent profitably, enlarging his knowledge of 

 the geological features of Scotland. In the summer of 1855 

 he complained of weakness, and that his working power was 

 not what it had been. He was troubled, too, with the linger- 

 ing bad effects of the mason's disease. He began to carry 

 pistols, as his imagination was haunted with the stories 01 

 robberies and outrages committed by desperate criminals, 

 which were rife at that time. In the meantime he was 

 labouring hard at the completion of his Testimony of the 

 Rod's. Night after night, in spite of his wife's entreaties, he 

 would return to his writing, and often only retired to rest in 

 the early morning. Mrs. Miller, who was herself in poor 

 health, aware that his nervous system was disordered, dreaded 

 an attack of apoplexy. Two doctors were consulted, and it 

 was found that he was suffering from an overworked mind, 

 disordering his digestive organs, enervating his whole frame, 

 and threatening serious head affection. His book was finished 

 by this time. On the night of the 24th December 1856, he 

 seems to have arisen from bed, and, in a paroxysm of mad- 

 ness, raised the thick woven seaman's jacket he wore over 

 his chest, applied the muzzle of his revolver to his left side 

 above the heart, and fired. The ball entered the left lung, 

 grazed the heart, and cutting through one of the main arteries, 

 lodged in the rib on the riglu side. The pistol slipping from 



