The Testimony of the Rocks or, Geology in its Bearings on the Two Theologies,
Natural and Revealed by Hugh Miller, St Matthew Publishing, Cambridge,
拢8.99, ISBN 190154611X
AN EARLY dropout from a formal education, Hugh Miller first became a
journeyman stonemason, which triggered his life-long love of geology. He went on
to become an effective essayist, pamphleteer, journalist and busy independent
editor who found solace in the geology in the region around Cromarty in
Scotland.
The success of his early book The Old Red Sandstone popularised
science in the mid-19th century. Recent commentators reckon he was a David
Attenborough and Stephen Jay Gould rolled into one, for his books sold in the
thousands.
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One of his missions was reconciling the geologic record with the biblical
one. To him Genesis was a metaphor for geological time, but such views
annoyed academic geologists and clergy alike. More importantly, he satisfied the
desire of his audiences for the latest scientific facts and their religious
implications.
The 12 lectures gathered in this little volume were for the most part
addressed to popular audiences鈥攁t the British Association, the Edinburgh
Philosophical Institution and the YMCA. Others are lectures prepared, but never
delivered. Sick and deranged by overwork, he shot himself at the age of 54.
Writing and speaking in an age when even the projectors were at best
primitive, science speakers had to lace their talks with colourful anecdotes,
comparisons and gentle invective. Miller did it aplenty, whether he was
emphasising that fossils are only the remains of former living organisms, or
that geologically the 鈥渄ays鈥� in which God created the beast, cattle and us all
extended over millions of years.
It is appropriate that this volume should be available to mark the 200th
anniversary of his birth.