152 FAMOUS SCOTS 



totally distinct. Yet in the great features of integrity 

 and force of character no two men could more 

 strikingly agree. Both wrote with their eyes on the 

 object, and both were loyal to fact. Of Miller we may 

 say what Carlyle had said of Sir Walter, that no 

 sounder piece of British manhood had been put to- 

 gether in this century of time, and that, when he 

 departed, he took a man's life along with him. 



A man of the people, he was understood by the 

 people ; and he wished it to be so. When we passed 

 through the Sutors of Cromarty some years ago, about 

 six in the morning of a fine summer day, there was 

 a sailor at the wheel on the bridge. Under the belief 

 that we were strangers to the locality, he pointed out 

 the statue in the distance and gave an acccount, correct 

 in the main, of what Miller had been and what he had 

 done. In dwelling upon the life the narrator seemed to 

 borrow respect for the dignity of all labour and of his 

 own calling. Goldsmith thought of Burke that in 

 giving up to party what was meant for mankind he had 

 narrowed his mental powers and lessened his influence 

 and force. It may be that there are some who think 

 that, in doing the ecclesiastical work which he accom- 

 plished, he had given up to the Church of Scotland in 

 all her branches what was meant for science. Such a 

 judgment would be incorrect ; it would certainly be one 

 which would but feebly reflect the convictions of all 

 Scotchmen. It is a true remark of the elder Disraeli 

 that few men of science have either by their work or in 



