ical deduction, of broad generalization, and of
pictorial and poetic representation. But the friends of
Christianity cannot regret, that since it was the mysterious decree
of Heaven that he should prematurely fall,--his work as a pure
Geologist not half done,--he should have been led aside by the
publication of the Vestiges of Creation to that track of
semi-theological, semi-scientific research to which his later
studies and later writings have been devoted. That, as it now seems
to us, was the great work which it was given him on earth to
do,--to illustrate the perfect harmony of all that science tells us
of the physical structure and history of our globe, with all that
the Bible tells of the creation and government of this earth by and
through Christ Jesus our Lord. The establishment and exhibition of
that harmony was a task to which is it too much to say that there
was no man living so competent as he? We leave it to the future to
declare how much he has done by his writings to fulfil that task;
but mourning, as we now can only do, over his sad and melancholy
death,--to that very death, with all the tragic circumstances that
surround it, we would point as the closing sacrifice offered on the
altar of our faith. His very intellect, his reason,--God's most
precious gift,--a gift dearer than life,--perished in the great
endeavor to harmonize the works and word of the Eternal. A most
inscrutable event, that such an intellect should have been suffered
to go to wreck through too eager a prosecution of such a work. But
amid the mystery, which we cannot penetrate, our love, and our
veneration, and our gratitude, toward that so highly gifted and
truly Christian man shall only grow the deeper because of the cloud
and the whirlwind in which he has been borne off from our side.

On the 31st of December, two days after the obsequies had been
performed, Dr. Hanna resumed the subject in the following elevated
strain:

We have still but little heart to dilate on any political or
literary topic. Our thoughts can dwell on but one thrice melancholy
event. Need we name that event? Alas, no! It had occurred but a few
hours when the tidings of it struck our city with stunning,
stupefying, and deeply saddening blow. It has already thrilled our
whole land; and is