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LEADING ARTICLES
ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.




{Illustration: W. H. McFarlane, Lith^r Edin^r
HUGH MILLER
_Fac-simile of a Calotype by D. O. Hill, R. I. A. 1845.
see page 184_}




MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,
PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.




LEADING ARTICLES

ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

BY

HUGH MILLER,

AUTHOR OF 'THE OLD RED SANDSTONE,' ETC. ETC.

_EDITED BY HIS SON-IN-LAW_,

THE REV. JOHN DAVIDSON.

_FOURTH EDITION._

EDINBURGH:
WILLIAM P. NIMMO.
1872.




PREFACE.


The present volume is issued in compliance with the strong solicitations
of many, to whose desire deference was due. In selecting the articles,
I have been guided mainly by two considerations,--namely, the
necessity for reproducing the mature opinion of a great mind, upon
great subjects; and for making the selection so varied, as to convey to
the reader some idea of the wonderful versatility of the powers
which could treat subjects so diverse in their nature with such
uniform eloquence and discrimination. I trust that the chapters on
Education will prove to be a valuable contribution to the speedy
settlement of that question at the present crisis. Those on
Sutherlandshire are inserted because they possess a permanent value,
in connection with the social and economical history of our country.
Some of the articles are of a personal character, and are introduced,
not, certainly, for the purpose of recalling old animosities, but
solely to illustrate the author's method of