214 HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. BY HUGH MILLER, AUTHOR OF 'THE OLD RED SANDSTONE," MY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS,' THIRD EDITION. EDINBURGH: WILLIAM P. NIM MO. UNUSUAL as it is to republish newspaper articles, no apology is deemed necessary in presenting this volume to the public. At the time of Mr Hugh Miller's death, it was felt that a large proportion of his contributions to the "Witness" deserved a permanent place in the literature of his country. They were recognised as distinguished—both by their literary merit and their sterling value-from the fugitive and ephemeral productions of every-day journalism. Assuming the conduct of a newspaper in the maturity of his powers, and in the plenitude of his literary and scientific information, Mr Miller's habit of composition was entirely different from that of ordinary ready writers of the press. As was correctly remarked at the time of his death, "he did not work easy, but with laborious special preparation." He meditated his articles as an author meditates his books or a poet his verses, conceiving them as wholes, working fully out their trains of thought, enriching them with far-brou |