late Professor MacgilliOray. 205 



and estimable personal character, unanimously resolve to 

 record the expression of the deep sense of the loss which 

 this University has sustained by his death, and of their sincere 

 sympathy with his bereaved family; and they appoint an ex- 

 tract of this minute to be sent to the family." 



He was a sincere and simple-hearted believer in the truths 

 of the Gospel, and they were his comfort and stronghold 

 during the long months of his gradual decay. As death ap- 

 proached, his faith became stronger and firmer ; and it was 

 highly characteristic of his conscientious discharge of duty 

 that he continued to work almost to the last day of his life, 

 though perfectly aware that death was surely and rapidly 

 approaching. The last passages of the British Birds were 

 written under this impression, and cannot now be read by 

 his friends without emotion. See preface to vol. v., and con- 

 clusion of vol. v. 



To all modern infidel or atheistic theories, so abundant in 

 most branches of natural science imported from the Conti- 

 nent, and reproduced under forms somewhat modified in this 

 country, and which in fact strike at the root of all religious 

 belief, whether under the name of Vestiges, or of Palingene- 

 sis, or Development, he was entirely opposed. They were 

 alike repugnant to him as a philosopher, and distasteful and 

 offensive to him as a Christian. Nor did he lose any fitting 

 opportunity of exposing their absurdities. 



His health began to fail about a year and a half before his 

 death, and he never appeared to recover from the fatigue and 

 exposure of a month spent in 1850, in exploring the central 

 region of the Grampians, the district around Lochnagar. In 

 November 1851, he was obliged to repair to the south of 

 England, in the expectation of benefiting by the milder air 

 of Devonshire, and at first there was some ground to hope, 

 but after his arrival at Torquay, he was suddenly deprived 

 of his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached ; and from 

 this blow, though he received it as a man and a Christian, he 

 appears never to have rallied ; he gradually became weaker, 

 and though he never ceased to work, it was most distressing 

 to his family to see his exertions, the mind and will reso- 



VOL. LIV. NO. CVIII.— APlilL 1853„ P 



