The Old Red Sandstone; or, New Walks in an Old Field
John Stuart Mill · en
"This is one of the most able and learned works which has ever been
issued from the American press. The North British Review says 'That
in its geological character it is not surpassed by any modern work of
the same class.' The style of the work is clear, rich, and strong;
its statements of truth are plain and accurate, and its arguments
are presented with masterly force. Its author, Hugh Miller, is a
man of very superior talents and attainments."--_New York Christian
Messenger._
"The author resembles Burns, in the freshness, and vigor, and
enthusiasm of genius; and had he ventured into the realm of poetry,
the greatest of Scottish bards might have welcomed his company.
We hope the volume may be widely circulated, especially among
intelligent Christians.... This work is written in a bold and
eloquent style, and though penetrating to the inner shrine of the
Geological temple, and necessarily dealing with hard words and harder
things, it will secure many readers."--_Christian Chronicle._
GOULD AND LINCOLN, PUBLISHERS, BOSTON.
THE OLD RED SANDSTONE;
OR
NEW WALKS IN AN OLD FIELD.
BY HUGH MILLER,
FROM THE FOURTH LONDON EDITION--ILLUSTRATED
A writer, in noticing Mr. Miller's "First Impressions of England and
the People," in the New Englander, of May, 1850, commences by saying,
"We presume it is not necessary formally to introduce Hugh Miller to
our readers; the author of 'The Old Red Sandstone' placed himself,
by that production, which was first, among the most successful
geologists, and the best writers of the age. We well remember with
what mingled emotion and delight we first read that work. Rarely
has a more remarkable book come from the press.... For, besides the
important contributions which it makes to the science of Geology,
it is written in a style which places the author at once among the
most accomplished writers of the age.... He proves himself to be
in prose what Burns has been in poetry. We are not extravagant in
saying that there is no geologist living who, in the descriptions of
the phenomena of the science, has united such accuracy of statement
with so much poetic beauty of expression. What Dr. Buckland said was
not a mere compliment, that 'he had never been so much astonished in
his life, by the powers of any man, as he had been by the geological
descriptions of Mr. Miller. That wonderful man described these
objects with a felicity which made him ashamed of the comparative
meagerness and poverty of his own descriptions, in the Bridgewater
Treatise, which had cost him hours and days of labor.' For our own
part we do not hesitate to place Mr. Miller in the front rank of
English prose writers. Without mannerism, without those extravagances
which give a factitious reputation to so many writers of the day,
his style has a classic purity and elegance, which remind one of
Goldsmith and Irving, while there is an ease and a naturalness in the
illustrations of the imagination, which belong only to men of true
genius."