genuine in its affection, and so genial in the touch of humour which irradiates it. Mr. Mackenzie will let the reader understand its point and allusions:

Mr. Miller had engaged to be present at a lecture to be delivered in my church by Alexander Macansh, a self-taught genius, in whom Mr. Miller took much interest. His letter was in reply to one from me, fixing the day. He had arranged an excursion to Fordel, three or four miles from Dunfermline, to see what the country folks called a fossil man, found some time before in a quarry there. The fossil is, of course, nothing more than ferruginous stains in the rock, presenting the rude outline of a human figure.-Yours, &c.

J. MACKENZIE.

To the Rev. James Mackenzie, Dunfermline.

Shrubmount, Portobello, 16th Dec., 1856. MY DEAR JAMES,—I have been set aside by one of my severe colds for a fortnight, and on Saturday, when I got your note, did not exactly know what to say in reply to it. But I have been getting steadily better for the last three days, and trust I may be able to be with you on the 29th. You may at least depend on my making an exertion; and if, notwithstanding, the fates forbid, must just get somebody else to sit in my place. Try, meanwhile, and find out the whereabouts of the Fordel man. With kind regards to Mrs. M. Yours affectionately,

HUGH MILLER.

On the 29th December a funeral procession is taking its way from Shrubmount, Portobello, to the Grange cemetery. The funeral is such as has not been seen in Edinburgh since the death of Chalmers, and it is the dust of the editor of the Witness that is about to be laid by the dust of the great Scottish theologian. In

that general assembly of the inhabitants of the metropolis that followed his bier, men of all ranks, all classes, and of all creeds, vied with each other in doing homage to the mighty dead. It was no common loss the land mourned; and, amidst a nation's lamentation, was he borne to his long rest.

"He is gone who seem'd so great-
Gone! but nothing can bereave him
Of the force he made his own,
Being here; and we believe him
Something far advanced in state,

And that he wears a truer crown

Than any wreath that man can weave him.
But speak no more of his renown;

Lay your earthly fancies down,

And in the vast cathedral leave him:

God accept, and Christ receive him!"

APPENDIX.

THE articles contributed to the Witness by its editor, during the last month of his existence, exhibit all the great powers of the great journalist in the fullest play. His papers on "The Forces of Russia," "The Felons of the Country," and "Modern Poetry," are characterized by the same wide grasp of thought, the same powerful sweep of imagination, the same felicitous grouping, and the same richness of literary allusion that had ever distinguished his finest productions. We give all our limits will permit the last thing he penned for the Witness, written only three days before in such sadlytragic manner he bade farewell to earth. We also subjoin his favourite prayer:

HUGH MILLER'S LAST ARTICLE.

"THE POLE STAR OF FAITH. Bath: Binns & Goodwin. London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co.

This is a sound little volume-simple in its plan, but excellent in its matter. It at once introduces the reader to an interesting circle of neighbours in a country locality, representative, in the several mem

bers of which it is composed, of some of the leading religious aspects of the time. There is a clever young man, tinged, though still untainted, by the prevailing neologic infidelity; a young lady, his sister, who has just begun to dream of stained glass, carved images, crosses, candlesticks, and mystic Gothic steeples that point upwards, and whose embryo Popery, taken up rather as a matter of taste than feeling, forms the true complementary colour, if we may so speak, to the incipient infidelity of her brother. Their aunt is represented as an old-fashioned Scottish Episcopalian lady, amiable and simple-hearted, but whose religion consisted mainly in attending, on Sabbaths and the - principal holidays, the services of her church, and whose religious adviser is well hit off as an equally old-fashioned clergyman of the same persuasion, who, so far as his light extends, is an honest man, but very considerably moderate in his leanings, and not a little teased and annoyed by the newly-awakened rage for the medieval which he saw prevailing around him. Such are the dramatis persona on the one side. Those on the other are a lady and son, earnest evangelical Christians; and an able and thoroughly excellent clergyman of the same vital school. There is scarce any incident in the work; but much ingenious and interesting dialogue, and many a sound and judicious reflection; and all is represented as coming right in the end. The semi-infidel becomes wholly a believer, influenced not more by the argument than by the disinterested excellence of his friend, and by his devotion to the Christian cause, for which he is described as giving up fair prospects of advancement in life, and welcoming the hardships and perils which encircle the life of the missionary. And the Puseyite lady loses in thoroughly awakened feeling, all her fancies, and discovers that religion is not a coloured window or a symbol, but a great life-influencing reality, that has its home in the heart. As a work of art the story is defective; but from the concluding sentences, we infer that it is not a work of art, but a sketch from nature, and that the mingled tissue of argument and reflection which forms the prevailing tissue of so many of the chapters, has been woven with an eye to the benefit of actual characters, who stood in need of the teaching thus imparted. We need scarce say that the doctrines specially dwelt upon are emphatically Protestant, and that the 'Pole Star of Faith' by which the work teaches to steer, and from which it borrows its title, is the guiding star of Divine Revelation."