Litchfield enquirer., 1857-01-29
EDWARD ED c. GOODWIN, Editor and Publisher.
Obituary.
HUGH MILLER, THE BIOLOGIST.

I Our English exchange announce the death C I Mir. Hugh Miller the we'll known writer on geolo I gy, and editor of the Witness newspaper. Mr. Mil l Ter had been found lying dead the floor of hi
 bedroom. shot through the heart by pistol bullet
 That he died by his own hand there seems to be n doubt, but the circumstances under which the mel
 ancholy event happened dO not lead to the supposi tion that his death was an act of intentional sui eide. .,, ,, I For some time past, the papers state, Mr. Iille
 has been in a somewhat indifferent state of health
 brought on, it was believed, by oyer-study in the preparation of new work on geology. He suffered
 considerably from nervous excitement, and, though
 at all times man of eccentric manners, an unusual strangeness was remarked by his acquaintanres.- i The evening before his death he to have dev- cred lecture ''1he Mosaic Creation to audi
 encc at Portobello bathing place in the neighbor hood of Edinburgh, where he resided. He had pre-
 pared the lecture but the state of his health pre-
 vented his delivering it, and it read in his ab-
 sence by a friepd. In tue course Of the day Mr { Miller saw his medical adviser, to whom he com plained of headache. brought on by the want of refreshing sleep Following the directions he re-
 ceiyed, he took warm bath and retired to rest ct 1 an early hour. He lad for some time been in the habit of keeping loaded revolver in his bedroom
 having, it is said strange apprehension of danger from house breakers, for which, in reality there l was some reason, an attclnl was made not very long ago, to break into his valuable museum. No explosion was heard by the servants during the night, and it was not till morning that the body was found lying near the bathroom. These cir cumstan, to pro:c that the melancholy event was purely accidental while the state of Mr. Miliers mind, as well as his general character and position
 ndsposc his friends to suspect Eim of preneditated or intentional selfdcstruction.
 The deceased was in the prime of his intellectual powers, having nearly completed his ffty-seeend year. and to the science of geology which his labors tended to render attractive to the general reader his death will prove serious loss. He born Cromarty, in Scotland, of humble parentage, and for fifteen years worked in q quarry, common laborer, employing his leisure moments in acquiring Il the information from books or observation which was possible un Ter the circumstances. The nature of his llin. probably, induced taste for geo ologcal lrches to which ot late years he has al
 most exclusively devoted himself; but his first rite rary attempts were in another drecti.n. HaAing received the position of accountant in a bank est tlblised in his native town he found more leisure for reading and study and published in 1855 his first work, ' Scenes and Legends in the North ot Scotland !" which has been extensively read in this country, well as Tn England. letter published
 in 165, after the decision ot the House Lords in the Aucherarder case ill which the schsm in the Church of Scotland was involved drew towards him the attention of the Evangelical party, and he appointed editor of the g. Witness newspaper, he principal metropolitan organ of the Free Church. He immediately impirteI vitality to this sheet, which for long time the vehicle of able arti- clcs from his pon political ecclesiastical and ge ologieL subjects. Besides the celebrated letter above alluded to, he has published .. the WhiSgism of the Old Scl,oo, Exenptiied in tine Past histo- ry and Present Position ol the Chu ch of Scotland,
 an'l other pamphlets in which strong, clear style and much controversial ability were exhibited.
 It is as gcolcgist. however, that Hcgh Miller lias lincd permanent tamc and h,ts contributed most successfully to human knowledge. h his iist scit ntific work The Old Red Sandst.jut or New Walks i'll an Old Field puCiished in lSil, he the first to disclose the important fact that the for nation, known to geoogists the old rcd sand stone, and generally supposed to be untossiferous, was in fact, tossilitcrous
 While working the stone as quarry man. his at tcntion had been attracted to the appearance of mi mute fossils in it. and these observations prosecuted subsequently, with great care, given to the word Ill digcsted form, a.d at once raised the au- thor to a prominent place among of science.-- Another work, entitled First Impressions of Eng land and its People" giving wcllcrawn pictures of the most striking social and physical features of England, has gone through number of editions, anu is highly esteemed ''The Footprints of the Creator, is devoted more exclusively to geological subjects. which, however always treated in q manner to prove attractive to the unscicntc read CT. His latest researches in geology have been con- fined to the reconciliation of the geological theory of the age and formation of the world with the Mo- saic account subject to which he has devoted pro- found attention, and on which he has lecturcd ard written much, during the last few years. On this subject he is well known to have held orthodox views, and in the letter which we publish below, Wtltten SCslfCely month ago, ana wnlcn CellVeS melancholy. interest from the circumstance ot his sudden dcath his position as a religious controyer- sialist is very decidedly indicated.
 It appears that the Rev. Samuel Mntnn had pub lishcd a lecture the Testimony ot Geelegy to the inspiration of Moses, hch he had read tciore the Young Men Christian Association of Liverpool This lecture was assailed by an anonymous writer, who charged the lecturer with pluining himself in the feathers of noble bird or, in ether words, with having adopted a lons-ago exploded hypoth- esis of Hugh Miller; who, he added, some years ago tried to reconcile the truths contained ill the book with the Mosaic account of the Crcstion
 but utterly failed ia the attempt and subsequently, ! had the eandor and manliness to admit the fact. Mr. Miller having noticed this statement, wrote as follows to Mr. Minton: sa
 "SHruBMoNr, Portobelo, Dec. 9th, 1856. "Dcar Sir: The statement in the local paper to which you refer is wholly without foundation, and may, think be regarded simply the divice of a not very respectable enemy. So far from retracsing the view taken in my Exeter Hall lecture, l have 1 been engaged for some time past in simplifying and l expanding it, and have now volume on the sub l jcct fully written, and nearly printed. Nothing seems to make tke rationasts &c.. ct the present day more sore than the various attempts made by geologists to reconcile the Mosaic and geologic re- cords. find the Rev. Baden Powell in Q lately published sermon, in which he denounccs the Christian Sabbath essentially immoral institu- tion, and the reason annexed to the fourth com mandment in the decalogue as a fabc-speaking as fellows: Some dvines have more consistently re, garded all geology and all science as prcfane and carnal and some. even when pretending to call themselves men of science, have stopped to the miserable policy of tampering with the truth, in- ycsting the red facts with false dogmaS to cringc to the prejudice of the many, and to pervert sei- enoe into seeming accordance with popular pre-. possession" This is language unworthy surely, of an 0xford professor. and wholly unwarrantahle
 when employed in designating class which in- clades men such as the late Dr. Chalmers and your l present venerable Archbishop of Canterbury. in
 fer from it. however, that our attempts at recoacii
 ation have not been altogether unsuccessful, and
 that what is known as the odnn heologiam is Ey 10
 means restoted to the orthodox side of the church. 1 bBsae l am, dear sir, yours very truly. s..lp | c els5ssis HUH MlIiEK $ A ss@5ft 3za@ fsssa#ssfsE -ss <----- #gEsl-s ss s653aa9 eassE&g TssssEg B. sss4ss ssgrf sss ssss