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Leader (1850-1860), 9th April 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 13, flb. 472 , Aprii. 9, 1859^] THE LEADER! ...

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      Hugh Miller's Lectures 0$ Geology. , Ske...

      the present aspects of scenes familiar to his auditors and which represent in their formations the se veral stages of patseontological history . Doubtless much of elementary geology is taught to the reader , ere he has reached the end of the lectures ; but in a discursive and , to some extent , an unmethodical and unscientific way . We cannot therefore but regard the title as a misnomer . Hugh Miller ' s mind was led to the study of geolo gy , and to the enrichment of geological science with many gains all his own , just as many sculptors have been led to the art of statuary . Many men , trained in the handicraft of niullion or cornice carvinghave caught , while they carved ,

      , the conviction of higlier forms of beauty and of bio-her capacities of plastic art : and they have taught their chisels to ci'eate and perpetuate the sacred innocency of cherubs and the graceful forms of nymphs . Hugh Miller ' s , earliest operative days were spent down m the' recesses of a quarry whose lowest rampart ,. were of venerable red sandstone , and whose topmost layers were deposits of red boulder clay . The mind of artistic bent is led forward from the fashioning of the rock into routine and useful fabrics , to the forming it into new and unborn shapes . Hugh-Miller ' s , speculative mind was led backward from his toil , into inquiries into the

      origin and history of the sandstone in which ever and anon he unexpectedly came upon a cavity exactly representing in its form some curious unknown . reptile , or of" the boulder clay in which he found pebbles polished to the smoothness of enamel , and rutted with lines which seemed to have been impressed by gnome or genii gravers . Under . any circumstances , in any age , Hugh Miller woiild have been a geological inquirer . The inquiring mind , situated as his was , would always have . been awakened into curiosity and speculation by the phenomena placed before his eyes . Luckily for liimself , he came into the world ,

      and began to philosophise in his quarry , a " sufficient number of years after other men ' s minds had begun to speculate in the same line , to have at his disposal the fruits of the first expeditions , into the wilds of tellurian , history—certain ascertained facts and deductions , which guided him in his further inquiries . For geology this man ' s mind was utilised in maxima , lie arrived just at the right time . Fifty years earlier his cravings would have been unsatisfied , and his observations turned to no scientific account . There was just enough of geological truth radiating to C ' romarty , when he began to hew slabs from the

      formation he has made his own forever , by the unassailed ri g ht of exclusive conquest , to light him some solacing steps on his way ; . but its glimmer was just fhint and short , —reaching enough to display without illuming still further recesses of research . and speculation . One curiosity was allayed only to beget others more enthralling . Hugh Miller began to philosophise in the natural and spontaneous way ; that is to say , he began , untutored as he was , to wonder what were the causes ofwhathesaw around him . To students of any science ^ in any stage other than that of the very earliest development , this way of philosophising is

      impossible . Progressive science is only possible tinder the condition of each student beginning where the last loft off . For the positive gain of the increased radiance , and under illumination of a truth in science , wo pay the penalty of removal further and further from the fresh wonder nn « l delight of the pioneers oa whose eyes its rays first dawned . In the sketch of geology , which Ji hcso six lectures contain , Hugh . Miller conducted his auditors , and now conducts his readers into every erratum of the earth ' s substance , especially the fossiliferous-. formations , in the fresh and natural method of unformal and primitive philosophy . His whole method is

      touches of £ in a sketchy way , some of the more obvious and interesting of minor details ; and then satisfies the curiosity he has incited as to their causes , by vivid and "imaginary descriptions combining all the circumstantial reality of a verbal Pre-Raphealitismwith the gi-andeur of an apocalyptic vision , of the processes and states tlirough which coal , porph yry ^ or limestone have passed . As an illustration of this plan , we shall summarise for our readers , the popular view he gives , in the last lecture , of the . primary rocks , that is , those deposited and done with , ere life was readers ai

      borri into matter . Many of our -e , doubtless , familiar with the scenery of the Western Highlands . Take your seat , then , once more , with Hugh Miller as fellow-passenger , on the coach that runs between Glencoe and Loch Lomond . In the glen you are in a region of primary porphyry , itself dingy , and made all the more sombre by the dark heath which covers without clothing it , and by the long shadows cast by its masses over the vale . Igneous these rocks must be . Their semi-columnar structure betrays their origin ; arid their . towering pyramidical form tells the same tale . .

      We emerge from Glencoe , and the scene entirely loses its chai * acter . We have just left towering masses , broken into dizzy precipices . [ Now , that first mountain that breaks upon our sighty is " a mere hummock , magnified into a mountain , and wrapped round by a continuous caul of brown heath . " And just beyond , the scene rolls-out into one of the dreariest moors in Scotland . We have passed from porphyry to granite , and to granite largely composed of feldspar . Feldspar contains a large pro }) ortion of potash , which decomposes readily , and thereby accounts for the rounded form , at once , of granite boulders , and these granite hills .

      We pass from granite to a region representative of the staple scenery of the Highlands . " Its swelling hills are rolled , like p ieces of plain drapery , into but a few folds , " and its . valleys arc ong and withdrawing . The hills are broad of base and squat , as if they were well begun ,, but interdicted in the building , and wanted upper stories . They are mountains- " of one ^ heave ; " whereas , all the grander Scottish mountains , such as Ben Lomond , and Ben Nevis , are of two heaves , at least . We have been journeying through gneiss . We pass from gneiss , and become aware , by the peculiar contour of the hills miles before us , that formation The rocks

      we are approaching a new . are grey , of a silky lustre ; curved , wrinkled , and contorted , like pieces of ill-laid-by satin . The outlines of the hills are tubcrclcd : projecting knobs and sudden recesses break , up their surfaces into picturesque wildernesses of light and shade . The decomposition of the rock evidently forms a soil favourable to the production of grasses , and the common dicotyledonous trees . For , as Sir Walter says , in the " Lady of the Lake , " with his invariable absolute truthfulness of local description : — •' Nor wore theso earth-born cnwtlos bare , Nor lacked they many a banner fnlr \ For from their uhlvored brows ( lltspliiyou , Far o ' er the unfathomable yliulo , All twinkling- with tUo dow-drop ' a sheen , The briar rose full in streamers fjn ; en , Aacl creeping- shrubs of thousand dyort , Wiiv'd lu the west wood ' s summer slyliB . " Loch Katrine , the Trosaohs , and Bon Lomond are in a mica-schist district . And so wo travel on through the clay-slate of the encroaching low-laud scene , between Loch Lomond and Dumbarton , sacred to the momdry of George Buchanan and Dr . Tobias Smollet .

      The above is a fair specimen , allowance being made for the unavoidable marring in the transcript and condensation of tho general style and treatment of the lectures . To those who wish to acquire by rote tho skeleton of geological science and nomenclature , tho book is not appropriate , It is all that can bo desired by tho hourts of those who would place themselves , with thy alacrity of joyful disciplodhipat tho feet of onowho Imh mastered many oi

      , nature ' s darkest and moat wondrous aocroU ; whoso s ot ^ l has risen and expanded with tho theme ) _ who has taken unto himself strength and sovereignty over ovory now domain of discovery , anil who possesses tho rare faculty of enkindling , u » a teacher , the enthusiasm and tremulous awo ho felt himself when first ho cronsort tho portals of tho past , and stepped upon the virgin shores of tho old rod sandstone epoch .

      analytical , Instead of starting from the bowels ol the earth , ns a systematic grammarian of geology would , and leading you through rod-hot gneiss ami schist , enigmatic Silurian bands , cinctures ot ' poat hardening and blackening into coal , seams 6 t lias i * ioh in shells and lizard scales , tilted up on tho slopes of Scottifih mountains , or enriching , as a subsoil , tho hops which wnvo over tho Woald of Kent . and so through chalk and tertiarics , up to tho alluvial soil , on whioli ho , tho geological grammarian , and you , the oramming student , stand ; instead of adopting this , tho dry , but logical synthetical method of Uidiictio science , Hugh Miller adopts just tho opposite plan . Ho first describes to you olntraotoristio iondsoapo features of certain formations , then

      Flb. 472 , Aprii. 9, 1859^] The Leader! ...

      flb . 472 , Aprii . 9 , 1859 ^] THE LEADER ! 46 l

      Life's Foreshadowings. Life's Foreshadow...

      LIFE'S FORESHADOWINGS . Life ' s Foreshadowings . 3 vols . Hurst and Blackett . We are presented in the preface with a gratuitous key to the " aim " of the author of "Life ' s Foreshadowings . " If the author has met with' the characters in real life pourtrayed in these remarkable volumes , then his or her experiences ¦ must have been somewhat exclusive . The passion of love is presented to us under two widely different modifications of its influence and action , in neither of which is it very probable that living typos could be found , even in this commonplace world ; of ours . Certainly the scene is laid in Ireland , and the characters are Irish . This may account for a good deal of the talent and much moro of the eccentricities that unquestionably display themselves in this work . The first portraiture- of " love "is shadowed forth in the history of Mr . Pierce Henderson . " Annie Brandon . The gentleman is more than middle-aged , bald , anything but good-loaldng , cold , selfish , an unnatural son , a hard , unfeeling husband , a severe father when passion is up ( he horsewhips his daughter over her bare- shoulders ) , a spendthrif t bankrupt ; and to all this " intolerable quantity of sack " the only redeeniing morsel oi " bread , "—if there be any redemption at all— -is r pleasant voice and a great command of shallow small talk . And yet Annie Brandon , a lovely ,

      wealthy , talented young creature , / who has beer brought up to view Pierce Henderson in the light of a second father , falls in veritable love with thi ? elderly piece of masculinity ,-and consents to become his wife . The match is broken off , however , because Annie Brandon becomes acquainted with the contemptible character of hevjzcuicc ; but no sooner does an . apoplectic attack—herniplegia , so it is described by the author—reduce this elderly ladykiller to a slavering semi-idiot , with features hideously distorted andlimbs paralysed , than the love oi

      young Annie Brandon revives , and becomes so intense that she marries- him as soon as tho doctor can get himnpon a pair ofcrutches . It is true that the author , in order to cover what would otherwise be the revolting aspect of this 'affair , ' restores the paralytic cripple to a moderate share of health ; still it is difficult to reconcile such , a marriage to notions of propriety , to" nature ' s workings , or to life ' s foroshadowings . The other love passage lias reference to Christie Roach and Jay ilontlerson , daughter of Pierce Henderson . Roach id a

      penniless man of plebeian extraction , gif tcl , however , with strong mental faculties , and devoted to abstruso science . Jay Henderson is a fairy in beauty and accomplishments , well-born , and her father ' s -heiress . ' She , when a'mere child , falls in love with Clu-istic Roach , then her latho-r ' s . agent ; Roacli loves Annie Brandon , and runs-daft when he finds his . hopes in that quarter are vain . Poor and . ugly , and not over clean , he still has attractions in the eyes of Jay Henderson , who would marry liim , nothing loth , did her worldly-wise parent consent . Cllristie Roach becomes eventually an astronomical and scientific luminary in Paris ,

      acquires fame , name , and money , comes to Ireland , and marries Jay Henderson , even thou quite young enough to b . o his daughter . Those are u few of " life ' s foreshadowings " in this work . We must put tho author on his or her trial—empanel a jury of the reading public—and having , as critical judge , given our charge , leave thorn to pronounce the verdict . We will not close this-notice without a word or two of positive approbation . Thu author has a fine , cultivated , elegant , but somewhat , crotchety mind , and a pictorial and fascinating stylo . u Life ' s Foreshadowing" wo assume to bo a first production , but it snows so' much real promise that wo fool confident tho writer , if ho or she chooses , may become a celebrity .

      Ellen Raymond. Ellen Raymond; Or, Ups An...

      ELLEN RAYMOND . Ellen Raymond ; or , Ups and JDown * . By Mrs . Vidp . 1 . 3 vols . Wnltl ., JCMor . andCo . Tins horoinu , Ellun Raymond , in tho foivmost character in tliw work—very handsome vory clover , very decided . Slio id throughout Hul . jectod to a series of trials and mirmdvonturos , tho consequence of not beiiur properly umloratuod ? sliu is placeil in 5 tii 2 onB rillidr critical fur horpurUy oi character ; si . o is nwtmhioU from vinilicutim , horse 11 by obl & nitioiw which ury not clearly defined ; she i * luatlu Llio victim of circumstances and wifcuations which jippcar in some respects averHtnunod , ; but slio HunnouiUH all her trials with dignity and decorum . TUo interest is made to oonoontrata

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 9, 1859, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09041859/page/13/