HUGH MILLER 137 



through the appearance of Robert Chambers's Vestiges 

 of the Natural History of Creation in 1844, an d a 

 subsequent volume of 'Explanations' in 1846. This 

 book caused almost as considerable a stir as that of 

 Darwin himself, and the greatest care was taken by 

 Chambers to conceal the authorship. The proof-sheets 

 sent to Mr. Ireland in Manchester, were returned to 

 the writer, who reforwarded them to Ireland, who in his 

 turn despatched them to London. The guesses at the 

 author ranged from Sir Charles Lyell up to the Prince 

 Consort ; and so strong were the feelings aroused that 

 they defeated a proposal to bring in Chambers as Lord 

 Provost of Edinburgh in 1848, and the secret was not 

 formally divulged till the issue by Ireland in 1884 of a 

 twelfth edition. The book is written in a 'powerful 

 and brilliant style,' as Darwin says ; and, though long 

 out of print, its re-issue by Routledge and Son in their 

 Universal Library has again drawn attention to its 

 views, which in Scotland caused something of the stir 

 produced by the appearance in England of Essays and 

 Reviews. Chambers, indeed, regarded his book as ' the 

 first attempt to connect the natural sciences into a 

 history of creation. As such, it must necessarily be 

 crude and unsatisfactory, yet I have thought the time 

 was come for attempting to weave a great generalisation 

 out of established natural truths.' Much of the popular 

 ideas or misconceptions about the geological record is 

 due to the Vestiges. It is not very strong in logic nor 

 exact in individual branches of science, yet its influence 



