e must add, that
his reputation stands by no means so high in the scientific world as in
the world at large. Partly from the fact that our Scotch neighbours are
in the habit of blowing the trumpet rather loudly before their
notabilities--partly because the charming style in which his books are
written has gained him a large circle of readers--partly, perhaps,
through a praiseworthy sympathy with him as a self-made man; Hugh Miller
has met with an amount of applause which, little as we wish to diminish
it, must not be allowed to blind the public to his defects as a man of
science. The truth is, he was so far committed to a foregone conclusion,
that he could not become a philosophical geologist. He might be aptly
described as a theologian studying geology. The dominant idea with which
he wrote, may be seen in the titles of two of his books--_Footprints of
the Creator_,--_The Testimony of the Rocks_. Regarding geological facts
as evidence for or against certain religious conclusions, it was
scarcely possible for him to deal with geological facts impartially. His
ruling aim was to disprove the Development Hypothesis, the assumed
implications of which were repugnant to him; and in proportion to the
strength of his feeling, was the one-sidedness of his reasoning. He
admitted that "God might as certainly have _originated_ the species by a
law of development, as he _maintains_ it by a law of development;--the
existence of a First Great Cause is as perfectly compatible with the one
scheme as with the other." Nevertheless, he considered the hypothesis at
variance with Christianity; and therefore combated with it. He
apparently overlooked the fact, that the doctrines of geology in
general, as held by himself, had been rejected by many on similar
grounds; and that he had himself been repeatedly attacked for his
anti-Christian teachings. He seems not to have perceived that, just as
his antagonists were wrong in condemning as irreligious, theories which
he saw were not irreligious; so might he be wrong in condemning, on like
grounds, the Theory of Evolution. In brief, he fell short of that
highest faith which knows that all truths must harmonize; and which is,
therefore, content trustfully to follow the evidence whithersoever it
leads.

Of course it is impossible to criticize his works without entering on
this great question to which he chiefly devoted himself. The two
remaining doctrines to be here discussed, bear directly on this