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turnpike roads, and voting large sums of money to reward Mr. MacAdam. In 1832, a bill was presented to Parliament for a line from Birmingham to London. It passed the Commons. The sum of £10,000 was asked as the price of withdrawing one part of the opposition to which it was exposed in the Lords; in short, the opposition had been got up for the purpose of being bought off. The bribe was refused, and the bill rejected. The directors, however, found that if they would succeed with noble lords, they must pay. The estimate, therefore, of money for land, which was £250,000 in the first bill, was raised to £750,000 in the second; and then the patriotic senators suffered the bill to become law; but not till £72,868 had been consumed in parliamentary expenses. Such is governmental patronage of the greatest national works. Mr. Stephenson was accustomed to attribute his success in life mainly, if not entirely, to one quality, perseverance. never would have it that he was a genius, or that he had done anything which other men, equally laborious and persevering with himself, could not have accomplished." The same notion appears repeatedly in the pages of the biography, and is much more to the credit of Mr. Stephenson's modesty than of his judgment. Unquestionably the miseries of society are to be traced chiefly to the want of two virtues, which it is in every man's power to practise, thrift and perseverance. It cannot be too sedulously impressed upon young men, that if they have health, and will but be steadfast and economical, they are absolutely certain of success. Let them banish the word "luck" from their vocabulary; and set out in life as faithful disciples of Solomon, who says, "the hand of the diligent maketh rich; "seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men, But when an authority like Stephenson conveys the impression that almost any man is competent to do what he did, he is betrayed into gross and not harmless exaggeration. There is as much difference between man and man, as between the Shetland pony and the London dray-horse, as between the Suffolk cart-horse and the winner of "the Derby." It is only here and there a man that can bear a staff "like a weaver's beam." To tell the multitude they may do all a giant does if they will, is but to mislead and dishearten them. Their powers are limited. To be diligent and faithful within the limits assigned them, is the whole of their duty; and to that duty they are not at all schooled, by being encouraged to imitate the frog in the fable. Sebastian Bach might say, "I was industrious, and whoever is equally industrious will be equally successful;" but the assumption that every man has the capacity to produce the music of

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Bach, or the dramas of Shakspere, or the engineering feats of Stephenson, is simply absurd; and can but delude those who are weak enough to be flattered by it. A moderate amount only of mental capacity is possessed by men generally. In their own sphere, they may be happy, useful, loved, honoured of God, educated for the highest honours of the kingdom of Christ, which will be meted out according to moral excellence; but they ought not to be told it is their own fault if they are not as tall as the son of Kish, or as strong as the son of Manoah.

George Stephenson, though a very modest man, unwittingly attributed far too much to himself, when he resolved his achievements into his own industry and perseverance. He possessed unusual bodily strength and endurance, and mentally he belonged to the class which are both shrewd and powerful beyond their fellows. Hearing some one read from a newspaper a description of the Egyptian mode of hatching eggs, he tried the experiment with birds' eggs by his engine fire. When a man grown, he acquired the arts of reading, writing, and arithmetic; mastered reduction while his comrade was wearying himself with the mysteries of simple division; and eventually outstripped his teacher. He tried his hand at perpetual motion; when his clock had been injured by fire, he took it to pieces, and repaired it, and so acquired a new and profitable business. From the difficulties created by the war, his enterprising spirit suggested an escape by emigration, and he was kept in England only by having spent his savings on his needy parents. He had a small garden, and no finer leeks or cabbages were to be found in the neighbourhood than there. In after life, he bore away the prize for pines from his friend Paxton, and for grapes in a competition with all England. The cucumbers, indeed, for a time baffled all the efforts of the engineer to make them grow straight, but at length he hit upon the plan of having glass cylinders made for them to grow in, and carrying one of the first successful specimens to his visitors, he exclaimed, "I think I have bothered them noo." He was a man qualified corporeally, mentally, and morally, to be foremost in the race of life.

Railroads will be ever associated in English history with some of the most discreditable tricks ever practised. It is greatly to Mr. Stephenson's honour that, while connected more closely than any other man with their construction and working, he unswervingly kept in the pathway of integrity and honour. His engines were thoroughly well made; and in the formation of new roads he took care to have good materials, and good workmanship, and would tolerate no "scamping." In the wild excitement of 1844 and 1845, he never speculated in shares, and did his best to convince all-and they were very many-who

endeavoured in vain to secure his sanction as engineer of worthless lines, of the ruinous consequences of their procedure.

As far as the memoir supplies any evidence in point, it presents Stephenson to us as an amiable child, a good son, a kind husband, an affectionate and wise father. Gladly should we have learned more than is revealed of his character religiously considered. When the head viewer went to ask him about the engine which failed to pump the water from the pit at Killingworth, he was dressed in his Sunday's suit, about to proceed to "the preachings" in the Methodist chapel, which at that time he attended. In later years,

"Whilst walking in the woods or through the grounds, he would arrest his friends' attention by allusion to some simple object,-such as a leaf, a blade of grass, a bit of bark, a nest of birds, or an ant carrying its eggs across a path, and descant in glowing terms upon the creative power of the Divine mechanician, whose contrivances were so exhaustless and so wonderful. This was a theme upon which he was often accustomed to dwell in reverential admiration, when in the society of his more intimate friends.

One night, when walking under the stars, and gazing up into the field of suns, each the probable centre of a system, forming the Milky Way, a friend said to him, 'What an insignificant creature is man, in sight of so immense a creation as that.' 'Yes,' was his reply, but how wonderful a creature also is man, to be able to think and reason, and even in some measure to comprehend works so infinite!'"

With these exceptions, there is scarcely a reference to be found to the religious views or practices of this distinguished man. The slight incidental evidence which the history supplies, is certainly not such as a pious man would desire. At page 357, a brief journal is given, extending from August 4th, 1836, to September 10th. We extract the only Sunday entries it contains:

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"August 14th. Meeting with Mr. Hudson at York, and journey from York to Newcastle." "21st. Carlisle to Dumfries by mail, forward to Ayr by chaise, proceeding up the valley of the Nith, through Thornhill, Sanquhar, and Cumnock." 28th. Journey from Edinburgh, through Melrose and Jedburgh to Horsley, along the route of Mr. Richardson's proposed railway, across Carter Fell." "September 4th. Sunday at Manchester."

Earnestly have we looked at the tale of his advancing life till in his 67th year he gave up the ghost, in quest of some intimations that he knew Him who is "the way, the truth, and the life," and that his great soul thrilled with the thought of eternity, and of that state amid the stupendous realities of which the

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achievements of earth shall appear as do now to man the feats of childhood. We have looked in vain. We can only hope that, in this respect, the written life is not a perfectly accurate transcript of the actual life.

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ART. IV. THE ATHEISMS OF GEOLOGY.

1. The Testimony of the Rocks; or, Geology in its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed. By Hugh Miller. Edinburgh: Shepherd & Elliot. 1857.

2. Atheisms of Geology: Sir C. Lyell, Hugh Miller, &c., confronted with the Rocks. By J. A. S. London: Piper, Stephenson,

& Co. 1857.

3. Voices from the Rocks; or, Proofs of the Existence of Man during the Paleozoic, or most Ancient Period of the Earth: a Reply to the late Hugh Miller's "Testimony of the Rocks." London: Judd & Glass. 1857.

WE much doubt whether the attempt so frequently made to reconcile the Mosaic narrative of the Creation and the discoveries or deductions of Geology have been to the glory of God, and the honour of His word. The authors who, with great confidence in their several modes of concordance, have claimed for their theories the authority of Revelation, have greatly over-estimated the value of their speculations. Every Christian mind is fully convinced that whenever a want of harmony is perceived between the declarations of the Bible and the deductions of science, man has been a false interpreter of one or both. The schemes of the Mosaical geologists have, therefore, whether received or rejected, no influence upon the faith of believers in Revelation, for they have already accepted the conclusion of the Apostle-"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that those things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." To the sceptic these pseudo-geological hypotheses are absolutely valueless. If he desire to bring his faith into harmony with his reason, and doubting be a state of painful suspense, he will seek for more convincing proofs of the authenticity of the Divine revelation than this subject is adapted to supply; and if his incredulity be a fictitious condition of mind, assumed as a justification of the habitual neglect of religious duties, or breaches of the moral law, a comparison of Sinai and Calvary will better suit his case than a reconciliation of the mineral and Mosaical geologies.

But we are disposed to go a step further in our depreciation of this class of books; for in many instances, we believe, they have encouraged the scepticism their authors honestly intended to remove. The Mosaic narrative of the Creation is singularly brief and explicit, and speculative minds have taken advantage of the brevity to interpolate explanations after their own fashion. If a number of artists were to paint pictures from the same bare outline, their works would prove, by dissimilarity, how little the greater number must resemble the original conception, or the living subject. The narrative of the Creation supplies a series of such outlines, and minds differing in character and in cultivation perceiving them under different lights, one has given prominence to parts which another has put in distance, and many have thus lost the spirit of the sketch altogether. This dissimilarity in the protended copies has, we fear, often excited a doubt as to the truthfulness of the original; and careless, ignorant minds have been taught to despise when they were asked to admire. But in making this statement, we have no desire to repress the expression of opinion, nor to condemn controversy within the legitimate area of scriptural research, and in the spirit of Christian candour.

Although we fully admit the necessity and benefit of a rigid examination of scientific deductions, we dispute both the propriety and right of those who use science for the purpose of denouncing the conclusions which stand in the way of preconceived hypotheses; and in so doing we again enter our protest against a large number of books on the mineral and Mosaical geologies. Their authors, confessing their dependence upon scientific research, in which they have taken no part, build up their several theories, as diverse as the tongues at Babel, though announced as confessions of faith, by a systematic denunciation of the deductions and characters of the men on whom they depend for facts. Nor is this all; for these theorists are apt to abuse each other, and some make the reception of their speculations the test of individual Christianity. If a man should believe that the earth was in existence, and "without form and void," prior to the first day of the Mosaic narrative; or, with Hugh Miller, that "the six days of the Mosaic narrative were not natural days, but lengthened periods," he must take his place with "atheistical geologists," and submit to be denounced by those who hold opposite opinions as a despiser of Revelation. The author of "Voices from the Rocks" has written a comparatively sensible and modest book, less disfigured than many others teaching the same theory, by violent attacks upon the faith of those who differ in opinion, but he cannot lay down the pen in that charity which "thinketh no evil."

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