It is rare nowadays to come upon an undeservedly neglected figure from Britain's Victorian age, but Hugh Miller (1802-56), the subject of this book, is one example. Admired in his time by such celebrated thinkers as Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Carlyle, Hugh Miller's many books on science, literature and religion addressed the preoccupying thoughts of the time, selling in tens of thousands of copies and winning admirers around the world. This collection of essays offers the first modern assessment of Miller, his life and work, and reveals one of the most fascinating and baffling men of his day. This newly discovered chapter in scientific thought will interest historians in science, social studies, labor studies, or the nineteenth century.