The Old Red Sandstone ... Fourteenth edition

Front matter

THE OLD RED SANDSTONE os NEW WALKS IN AN OLD FIELD. lMunnAY AND GIDB, EDINBURGH. rP.INTI.B_ TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. OLD BED SANDSTONE OF SCOTLAND. OLD RED SANDSTONE OF ENGLAND. (Sir Roderick Murchison.) BURN OF EATHIE. SECTION THE AUTHOR OF ' Fi w OLD RED SANDSTONE GH NEW WALKS IN AN OLD FIELD. BY HUGH MILLER, >OTPRINTS OF THE CREATOR,' 'THE TESTIMONY Of THE ROCKS,' ' MY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS,' ETC. ETC. FOURTEENTH EDITION. EDINBURGH: ILLIAM P. NIMMO. 18; r. TO RODERICK BIPEY MURCHISON, ESQ., F.R.S., &o. &c. &c, PRESIDENT OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. In the autumn of last year I sat down to write a few geological sketches for a newspaper ; the accumulated facts of twenty years crowded upon me as I wrote, and the few sketches have expanded into a volume. Permit me, honoured Sir, to dedicate this volume to you.

Its imperfections are doubtless many, for it has been produced under many disadvantages ; but it is not the men best qualified to decide regarding it whose criticisms I fear most; and I am especially desirous to bring it under your notice, as of all geologists the most thoroughly acquainted with those ancient formations which it professes partially to describe. I am, besides, desirous it should be known, — and this, I trust, from other motives than those of vanity, — that, when prosecuting my humble researches in obscurity and solitude, the present President of the Geological Society did not deem it beneath him to evince an interest in the results to which they led, and to encourage and assist the inquirer with his advice. Accept, honoured Sir, my sincere thanks for your kindness. Smith, the father of English Geology, loved to remark that he had been born upon the Oolite, — the formation whose various deposits he was the first to distinguish and describe, and from which, as from the meridian line of the geographer, the geological scale has been graduated on both sides.

I have thought of the circumstance when, on visiting, in my native district, X DEDICATION. the birthplace of the author ofthe "Silurian System," I found it situated among the more ancient fossiliferous rockB of the north of Scotland, — tho Lower Formation of the Old Eed Sandstone spreading out beneath and around it, and the first-formed deposit of the system, the Great Conglo merate, rising high on the neighbouring hills. It is unquestionably no slight advantage to be placed, at that early stage of life when the mind collects its facts with greatest avidity, and the curiosity is most active, in localities where there is much to attract observation, that has escaped the notice of others. Like the gentleman whom I have now the honour of ad dressing, I too was born on the Old Eed Sandstone, and first broke ground as an inquirer into geological fact in a formation scarce at all known to the geologist, and in which there still remains much for future discoverers to examine and describe.

Preface

TO THE EIEST EDITION. Nearly one-third of the present volume appeared a few months ago, in the form of a series of sketches in the Witness newspaper. A portion of the first chapter was submitted to the public a year or two earlier, in " Chambers' Edinburgh Journal" The rest, amounting to about two-thirds of the whole, appears for the first time. Every such work has its defects. The faults of the pre sent volume, — faults all too obvious, I am afraid, — would have been probably fewer had the writer enjoyed greater leisure. Some of them, however, seem scarce separable from the nature of the subject ; there are others for which, from their opposite character, I shall have to apologise, in turn, to opposite classes of readers. My facts would, in most in stances, have lain closer had I written for geologists exclu sively, and there would have been less reference to familiar phenomena.

And had I written for only general readers, my descriptions of hitherto undescribed organisms, and the deposits of little known localities, would have occupied fewer pages, and would have been thrown off with perhaps less re gard to minute detail than to pictorial effect May I crave,

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION. while addressing myself, now to the one class and now to the other, the alternate forbearance of each ? Such is the state of progression in geological science, that the geologist who stands still for but a veiy little must be content to find himself left behind. Nay, so rapid is the progress, that scarce a geological work passes through the press in which some of the statements of the earlier pages have not to be modified, restricted, or extended in the con cluding ones. The present volume shares in this respect in what seems the common lot. In describing the Coccosteus, the reader will find it stated that the creature, unlike its con temporary the Pterichthys, was unfurnished with arms. Ere arriving at such a conclusion, I had carefully examined at least a hundred different Coccoslei; but the positive evidence of one specimen outweighs the negative evidence of a hun dred ; and I have just learned from a friend in the north (Mr Patrick Duff of Elgin), that a Coccosteus lately found at Lethen-bar, and now in the possession of Lady Gordon Cum ming of Altyre, is furnished with what seem uncouth paddle shaped arms that project from the head.* All that I have given of the creature, however, will be found true to the actual type ; and that parts should have been omitted will surprise no one who remembers that many hundred belemnites had been figured and described ere a specimen turned up in which the horny prolongation, with its inclosed ink- * As these paddle-shaped arms havo not been introduced by Agassiz into his restoration of the Coccosteus, their existence, at least as arms, must still be regarded as problematical.

There can be no doubt, however, that they existed as plates of very peculiar form, and greatly resembling paddles, and that they served in the economy of the aDimal some still unaccounted for purpose.

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION. XXIII bag, was found attached to the calcareous spindle ; and that even yet, after many thousand trilobites have been carefully examined, it remains a question with the oryctologist, whether this crustacean ofthe earliest periods was furnished with legs, or creeped on an abdominal foot, like the snail. I owe to the kindness of Mr Robertson, Inverugie, the specimen figured in Plate V,, fig. 7, containing shells of the only species yet discovered in the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. They occur in the lower formation of the system, in a quarry near Ejrkwall, in which the specimen figured, with several others of the same kind, was found by Mr Robertson in the year 1844. In referring to this shell, page 99,* I have spoken of it as a delicate bivalve, much resembling a Venus ; drawing my illustration, naturally enough when describing the shell of an ocean deposit, rather from among marine than fluviatile testacea.

I have since submitted it to Mr Murchison, who has obligingly written me that he "can find no one to say more regarding it than that it is very like a Cyclas." He adds, however, that it must be an ocean pro duction notwithstanding, seeing that all its contemporaries in England, Scotland, and Russia, whether shells or fish, are unequivocally marine. With the exception of two ofthe figures in Plate IX, — the figures of the Cephalaspis and the Holoptychius, — and one of the sections in the frontispiece, — section 2, — all the prints of the volume are originals. To Mr Daniel Alexander of Edin burgh, — a gentleman who to the skill and taste of the su perior artist adds no small portion of the knowledge of the practical geologist, — I am indebted for several of the draw- * Page 116 of the present edition.

PREFACE.

TO THE FIRST EDITION'. XXIV ings, — those of fig. 2 in Plate V., fig. 1 in Plate VI, fig. 2 in Plate VIII., and figs. 3 and 4 in Plate IX I am indebted to another friend for fig. 1 in Plate VII. "Whatever defects may be discovered in any of the others must be attributed to the untaught efforts of the writer, all unfamiliar hitherto with the pencil, and with by much too little leisure to acquaint himself with it now. Page 33-46 47-64 CONTENTS.

Chapter I

The "Working Man's True Policy — His only Mode of acquiring Power — The Exercise of the Faculties essential to EDj'oyment — No necessary Connection between Labour and TJnhappiness— Narrative — Scenes in a Quarry — The Two Dead Birds — Landscape — Eipple Markings on a Sandstone Slab — Boulder Stones — Inferences derived from their "Water-worn Appearance — Sea-coast Section — My first-discovered Fossil — Lias Deposit on the Shores of the Moray Frith — Belemnite — Ees ult of the Experience of Half a Lifetime of Toil — Advantages of a "Wandering Profession in Connection with the Geology of a Country — Geological Opportunities of the Stone- Mason— Design of the present Work, . . .

Chapter II

The Old Eed Sandstone — Till very lately its Existence as a Distinct Formation disputed — Still little known — ItB great importance in the Geological Scale — Illustration — The North of Scotland girdled by an immense Belt of Old Eed Sandstone — Line of the Girdle along the Coast— Marks of vast Denudation— Its Extent partially indicated by Hills on the "Western Coast of Eoss-shire— The System of great Depth in the North of Scotland— Difficulties in the way of Estimating the Thickness of Deposits — Peculiar Formation of Hill — Illustrated by Ben Nevis— Caution to the Geological Critic — Lower Old Eed Sandstone immensely Developed in Caithness—Sketch of the Geology of that County — Its strange Group of Fossils — Their preseut Place of Sepulture — Their AncieDt Habitat — Agassiz— Amazing Progress of Fossil Ichthyology during the k_t few Tears — Its Nomenclature— Learned Names repel Unlearned Eeaders — Not a great deal in them, . CONTEXTS. rose

Chapter III

Lamarck's Theory of Progression illustrated— Class of Facts which give Colour to it— The Credulity of Unbelief— Wa.. Maillet and his Fish-birds— Gradation not Progress— Geological Argument— The Present incomplete without the Past— Intermediate Links of Creation — Organisms of the Lower Old Eed Sandstone— The Pterichthys— Its First Discovery — Mr Murchison's Decision regarding it — Confirmed by that of Agassiz— Description — The several Varieties of the Fossil yet discovered — Evidenco of Violont Death, iu the Attitudes in which they are found — The Coccosteus of the Lower Old Eed — Description — Gradations from Crustacea to Fishes— Habits of the Coccosteus— Scarcely any Conception too Extravagant for Naturo to realize, C5-S2

Chapter IV

The Eian-fisli of Gawin Douglas— Tho Fish of the Old Red Sandstone scarcely less Curious— Place which they occupied indicated in the present Creation by a mere Gap — Fish divided into Two Great Series, the Osseous and Cartilaginous — Their distinctive Peculiarities — Geological Illustration of Dr Johnson's shrewd Objection to the Theory of Soame Jenyns — Proofs of tho Intermediate Character of the Ichthyolites of the Old Red Sandstone — Appearances which first led the Writer to deem it Intermediate — Confirmation by Agassiz— The Osteolepis — Order to which this Ichthyolite belonged — Description — Diplerus — Diplopterus — Cheirolepis—Glyptolepis, ..... 83-101

Chapter V

The Classifying Principle and its Uses — Three Groupes of Ichthyolites among the Organisms of tho Lower Old Red Sandstone— Peculiarities of the Third Group — Its Varieties — Description of the Cheiracanlhus — Of Two Unnamed Fossils of the same Order — Microscopic Beauty of these Ancient Fishes — Various Styles of Ornament which obtain among them — The Molluscs of the Formation — Remarkable chiefly for the Union of Modern with Ancient Forms which they exhibit— Its Vegetables— Importance and Interest of the Record which it furnishes, . . . 105-1.13

Chapter VI

The Lines of the Geographer rarely Eight Lines — These last, however, always worth looking at when they occur— Striking In- CONTENTS. XXVII Page stance in the Line of the Great Caledonian Valley — Indicative of the Direction in which the Volcanic Agencies have operated — Sections of the Old Eed Sandstone furnished by the Granitio Eminences of the Line— Illustration — Lias of the Moray Frith — Surmisings regarding its Original Extent— These lead to an Ex ploratory Eamble — Narrative — Phenomena Exhibited in the course of Half an Hour's Walk— The Little Bay — Its Strata and their Organisms, ...... 120-132

Chapter VII

Further Discoveries of the Ichthyolite Beds — Found in one Locality under a Bed of Peat — Discovered in another beneath an ancient Burying-ground — In a Third underlying the Lias Formation — In a Fourth overtopped by a still Older Sandstone Deposit — Difficulties in ascertaining the True Place of a Newly-Discovered Formation — Caution against drawing too hasty Inferences from the mere Circumstance of Neighbourhood — The Writer receives his First Assistance from without — " Geological Appendix" of the Messrs Anderson of Inverness— Further Assistance from the Eesearches of Agassiz — Suggestion — Dr John Malcolmson — His Extensive Discoveries in Moray— He submits to Agassiz a Drawing of the Pterichthys — Place of the Ichthyolites in the Scale at length determined — Two Distinct Platforms of Being in the Formation to which they belong, ...... 133-147

Chapter VIII

Upper Formations of the Old Eed Sandstone — Eoom enough for each and to spare — Middle or Comstone Formation — The Cephalaspis its most characteristic Organism — Description — The Den of Balruddery richer in the Fossils of this Middle Formation than any other Locality yet discovered — Various Contemporaries of the Cephalaspis — Vegetable Impressions — Gigantic Crustacean — Seraphim — Ichthyodorulites— Sketch of the Geology of Forfarshire — Its Older Deposits of the Comstone Formation— The Quarries of Carmylie — Their Vegetable and Animal P.emains — The Upper Formation — Wide Extent of the Fauna and Flora of the Earlier Formations— Probable Cause, . . . 148-172

Chapter IX

Fossils of the Upper Old Eed Sandstone much more imperfectly preserved than those of tbe Lower — The Causes obvious — Difference between the Two Groupes which first strikes the Observer, CONTENTS. Pot*. 101 -206 -223 a Difference in Size— The Holoptychius a Characteristic Ichthyo lite of the Formation— Description of its huge Scales— Of its Occipital Bones, Fins, Teeth, and General Appearance—Contem poraries of the Holoptychius— Sponge-like Bodies— Plates resembling those of the Sturgeon— Teeth of Various Forms, but all evidently the Teeth of Fishes — Limestone Band, and its Probable Origin— Fossils of the Yellow Sandstone— The Pterichthys of Dura Den— Member of a Family peculiarly Characteristic of the System— No Intervening Formation between the Old Eed Sand stone and the Coal Measures— The Holoptychius Contemporary for a time with the Megalichthys— The Columns of Tubal Cain, 173

Chapter X

Speculations in the Old Eed Sandstone, and their Character- George, first Earl of Cromarty— His Sagacity as a Naturalist at fault in one instance — Sets himself to Dig for Coal in the Lower Old Eed Sandstone— Discovers a fine Artesian Well— Value of Geological Knowledge in an Economic View— Scarce a Secondary Formation in the Kangdom in which Coal has not been sought for — Mineral Springs of the Lower Old Eed Sandstone— Strathpeffer — Its Peculiarities, whence derived— Chalybeate Springs of Easter Ross and the Black Isle— Petrifying Springs— Building-Stone and Lime of the Old Red Sandstone— Its Various Soils, . 192

Chapter XI

Geological Physiognomy— Scenery of the Primary Formations; Gneiss, Mica Schist, Quartz Eock — Of the Secondary ; the Chalk Formations, the Oolite, the New Eed Sandstone, the Coal Measures—Scenery in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh— Aspect of the Trap Eocks — The Disturbing and Denuding Agencies— Distinctive Features of the Old Eed Sandstone— Of the Great Conglomerate—Of the Ichthyolite Beds— The Burn of Eathie— The Upper Old Eed Sandstones— Scene in Moray, ' . . 207-

Chapter XII

The Two Aspects in which Matter can be Viewed : Space and Time — Geological History of the Earlier Periods— The Cambrian System—Its Annelids— The Silurian System— Its Corals, Encrinites, Molluscs, and Trilobites— Its Fish— These of a High Order, and called into Existence apparently by Myriads— Opening Scene in the History of the Old Eed Sandstone a Scene of Tempest— Eepresented by the Great Conglomerate— Eed a prevailing Colour CONTENTS. XXIX Page among the Ancient Eocks contained in this Deposit — Amazing Abundance of Animal Life — Exemplified by a Scene in the Her ring Fishery — Platform of Death— Probable Cause of the Catastrophe which rendered it such, ..... 227-240

Chapter XIII

Successors of the Exterminated Tribes— The Gap Blowly Filled — Proof that the Vegetation of a Formation may long survive its Animal Tribes— Probable Cause — Immensely Extended Period during which Fishes were the Master Existences of our Planet — Extreme Folly of an Infidel Objection illustrated by the Fact— Singular Analogy between the History of Fishes as Individuals and as a Class — Chemistry of the Lower Formation — Principles on which the Fish-inclosing Nodules were probably Formed — Chemical Effect of Animal Matter in discharging the Colour from Eed Sandstone— Origin of the Prevailing Tint to which the System owes its Name — Successive Modes in which a Metal may exist — The Eestorations of the Geologist void of Colour — Very Different Appearance of the Ichthyolites of Cromarty and Moray, . 241-255

Chapter XIV

The Comstone Formation and its Organisms— Dwarf Vegetation — Cephalaspides — Huge Lobster — Habitats of the Existing Crustacea — No unapt Representation of the Deposit of Balruddery furnished by a Land-locked Bay in the Neighbourhood of Cromarty — Vast Space occupied by the Geological Formations — Contrasted with the Half-formed Deposits which represent the Existing Creation — Inference — The Formation of the Holoptychius — Probable Origin of its Siliceous Limestone — Marked Increase in the Bulk of the Existences of the System— Conjectural Cause— The Coal Measures— The Limestone of Burdiehouse— Conclusion, 256-271 Ichthyolites or the Old Eed Sandstone— From Agassiz's "Poiseons Fossiles," ...... 272-274 EXPLANATIONS OF THE SECTIONS AND PLATES

Section I

Bepresents the Old Eed System of Scotland from its upper beds of Yellow Quartzose Sandstone to its Great Conglomerate base. _. Quart zose Yellow Sandstone, b. Impure concretionary limestone inclosing masses of chert, c. Eed and variegated sandstones and conglomerate. These three deposits constitute an upper formation of the system charac terized by its peculiar group of fossils. (See Chapter IX.) _. Deposit of gray fissile sandstone, which constitutes the middle formation of the sys tem, characterized also by its peculiar organic group. (See Chapter VIII. ) e. Eed and variegated sandstones, un distinguishable often in their mineral character from the upper sandstones (c), but in general less gritty, and con taining fewer pebbles. /. Bituminous schists, g. Coarse gritty sand stone. _. Great Conglomerate.

These four beds compose a lower forma tion of the system, more strikingly marked by its peculiar organisms than even the other two. (See Chapters II., III., IV., and V.) In the section this lower formation is represented as we find it developed in Caithness and Orkney. In fig. 5 it is represented as developed in Cromarty, where, though the fossils are identical with those of the more northern localities, at least one of the deposits (/) is mineralogically different, — alternating beds of sandstone and clay, these last inclosing limestone nodules, taking the place of the bituminous schists.

Section II

The Old Eed System of England and Wales, as given in the general Section of Mr Murchison, with the Silurian rocks beneath and the carboniferous limestone above, i. The point in the geological scale at which vertebrated existences first appear. The three Old Eed Sandstone formations of this section correspond in their characteristic fossils with those of Scotland, but the proportions in which they are developed are widely different. The tilestones seem a comparatively narrow stripe in the system EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. in England : the answering formation in Scotland, e, f, g, h, is of such enormous thickness, that it has been held by very superior geologists to contain three distinct formations, — e, the New Eed Sandstone, /, a representative of the Coal Measures, and g, h, the Old Eed Sandstone.

SECTION IIL

Interesting case of extensive denudation from existing causes on tho northern shore of the Moray Frith. (See pages 214 and 215.) The figures and letters which mark tbe various beds correspond with those of fig. 5, and of the following section. The " fish-bod," No 1, represents what the reader will find described iu pp. 237-240 as the " platform of 6_dde_ death."

Section IV

Illustration of a fault in the Burn of Eathie, Cromartyshire, (See page 220 and 221.) Plate I. — Fig. 1, Eestoration of upper side of the elongated species of Pterichthys (P. oblongus), referred to in page 76. Fig. 2, Pterichthys Mil leri. Fig. 3, Part of tail of elongated species, showing portions of the original covering of rhomboidal scales. Fig. 4, Tubercles of Pterichthys magnified. Plate II. — Fig. 2, Eestoration of under side of Pterichthys oblongus. Fig. 1, A second specimen of Pterichthys Milleri. Fig. 3, Portion of wing, natural size. Plate III. — Fig. 1, Coccosteus cuspidatus. Fig. 2, Impression of inner surface of large dorsal plate. Fig. 3, Abdominal lozenge-shaped plate. Fig 4, Portion of jaw with teeth. Plate IV. — Fig. 1, Eestoration of Osteolepis major. Fig. 2, Scales from the upper part of the body magnified.

Fig. 3, Large defensive scale which runs laterally along all the single sins. Fig. 4, Under side of scale, showing the attaching bar. Fig. 5, Enamelled and punctulated jaw of the crea ture. Fig. 6, Magnified portion of fin, showing the enamelled and punctulated rays. Plate V. — Fig. 1, Dipterus macrolepidotus. This figure serves merely to show the place of the fins and the general outline of the ichthyolite. All the specimens the writer has hitherto examined fail to show tho minuter details. Fig. 2, Glyptolepis leptopterus. Fig 3, Single scale of the crea ture, showing its rustic style of ornament. Fig. 4, Scale with a nail-like attachment. Fig. 5, Under side of scale. Fig. 6, Magnified portion of fin. Fig. 7, Shells of the Old Eed Sandstone. Plate VI.— Fig. 1, Cheiro'epis Cummingœ. Fig. 2, Magnified scales.

Fig. 3, Magnified portion of sin. EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. XXXIII Plate VIL— Fig. 1, Cheiracanthus microlepidolus. Fig. 2, Magnified scales. Figs 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Vegetable impressions of the Old Eed Sand stone. Plate VIII.— Fig. 1, Diplacanthus longispinus. Fig. 2, Diplacanlhus striatus. Fig. 3, Magnified scales of fig. 1. Fig. 4, Spine of fig. 2, slightly magnified. Plate IX. — Fig. 1, One of the tail flaps of the gigantic Crustacean of Forfarshire. Fig. 2, Eeticulated markings of Carmylie. Plate X.— Fig. 1, Cephalaspis Lyellii, copied from Lyell's " Elements of Geology." Fig. 2, Holoptychius Nobilissimus, copied on a greatly re duced scale from Murchison's " Silurian System." Fig. 3, Scale of Holop tychius, natural size. Fig. 4, Tooth of ditto, also natural size. These last drawn from specimens in the collection of Mr Patrick Duff of Elgin.

ADDITIONAL PLATES TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. Plate XI.— Eestoration of Coccosteus, incomplete found in Mr Miller1 » repositories after his death. See Note C. Plate XII. — Eestoration of Cephalaspis, from several specimens lately found in Forfarshire. See Note F. Plate XTTT. — Parka decipiens, from a specimen in the private collection of Lord Kinnaird, Eossie Priory. See remarks in Note I. Plate XTV. — Figure of a Holoptychius found some time ago in Dura Den, Fifeshire, and now in the cossession of a private collector in Dundee. DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. SnEET of Sections to irons Title-page. Plate I. to front page 72 II 76 HI 78 17 94 V 100 VI- • •■• . 102 vn lug vm .110 I* 158 *-•■•.. 176 xr., xn, xm, THE OLD KED SANDSTONE; 01*, NEW WALKS IN AN OLD FIELD.

Chapter I

The "Working Han's True Policy — His only Mode of acquiring Power — The Exercise of the Faculties essential to Enjoyment — No necessary Connection between Labour and Unhappiness — Narrative — Scenes in a Quarry — The Two Dead Birds — Landscape — Hippie Markings on a Sandstone Slab — Boulder Stones — Inference derived from their "Water-wom Appearance — Sea-coast Section — My first-discovered Fossil — Lias Deposit on the Shores of the Moray Frith — Belemnite — Result of the Experience of Half a Lifetime of Toil — Advantages of a "Wandering Profession in Connection with the Geology of a Country — Geological Opportunities of the Stone-Mason — Design of the present "Work. My advice to young working men desiroiis of bettering their circumstances, and adding to the amount of their enjoyment, is a very simple one.

Do not seek happiness in "what is misnamed pleasure ; seek it rather in what is termed study. Keep your consciences clear, your curiosity fresh, and em brace eveiy opportunity of cultivating your minds. You ■will gain nothing by attending Chartist meetings. The fel lows who speak nonsense with fluency at these assemblies, and deem their nonsense eloquence, are totally unable to c help either you or themselves; or, if they do succeed in helping themselves, it will be all at your expense. Leave them to harangue unheeded, and set yourselves to occupy your leisure hours in making yourselves wiser men. Learn to make a right use of your eyes : the commonest things are worth looking at, — even stones and weeds, and the most familiar animals. Read good books, not forgetting the best of all : there is more true philosophy in the Bible than in every work of every sceptic that ever wrote ; and we would be all miserable creatures without it, and none more miserable than you.

You are jealous of the upper classes ; and per haps it is too true that, with some good, you have received much evil at their hands. It must be confessed they have hitherto been doing comparatively little for you, and a great deal for themselves. But upper and lower classes there must be so long as the world lasts ; and there is only one way in which your jealousy of them can be well directed : do not let them get ahead of you in intelligence. It would be alike unwise and unjust to attempt casting them down to your own level, and no class would suffer more in the at tempt than yourselves ; for you would only be clearing the way, at an immense expense of blood, and under a tremendous pressure of misery, for another and perhaps worse aris tocracy, with some second Cromwell or Napoleon at their head.

Society, however, is in a state of continual flux : some in the upper classes are from time to time going down, and some of you from time to time mounting up to take their places, — always the more steady and intelligent among you, remember ; and if all your minds were cultivated, not merely intellectually, but morally also, you would find your selves, as a body, in the possession of a power which every charter in the world could not confer upon you, and which all the tyranny or injustice of the world could not withstand. I intended, however, to S] eak rather of the pleasure to be derived by even the humblest, in the pursuit of knowledge, than of the power with which knowledge in the masses is invariably accompanied. For it is surely of greater import ance that men should receive accessions to their own happi ness, than to the influence which they exert over other men.

There is none of the intellectual, and none of the moral faculties, the exercise of which does not lead to enjoyment ; nay, it is chiefly in the active employment of these that all en joyment consists ; and hence it is that happiness bears so Little reference to station. It is a truth which has been often told, but very little heeded or little calculated upon, that though one nobleman may be happier than another, and one labourer happier than another, yet it cannot be at all premised of their respective orders that the one is in any degree happier than the other. Simple as the fact may seem, if universally recognised it would save a great deal of useless discontent, and a great deal of envy. Will my humble readers permit me at once to illustrate this subject, and to introduce the chapters which follow, by a piece of simple narrative 1 I wish to show them how possible it is to enjoy much happi ness in very mean employments.

Cowper tells us that la bour, though the primal curse, " has been softened into mercy ; ' and I think that, even had he not done so, I would have found out the fact myself. It was twenty years last February since I set out, a little before sunrise, to make my first acquaintance with a life of labour and restraint ; and I have rarely had a heavier heart than on that morning. I was but a slim, loose-jointed boy at the time, fond of the pretty intangibilities of romance, and of dreaming when broad awake ; and, woful change ! I was now going to work at what Burns has instanced, in his " Twa Dogs," as one of the most disagreeable of all employments, — to work in a quarry. Bating the passing uneasiness occasioned by a few gloomy anticipations, the portion of my THE OLD RED SANDSTONE. life which had already gone by had been happy beyond tho common lot.