has tried to devote these twenty hours weekly to work, towards which natural tastes have drawn him, without finding that he could overtake much? The fact is, that men who cry out about neglect of duty in such cases, are either too ignorant to be able to sympathise with higher studies than catering for a Sabbath sermon, or too lazy to keep abreast of the intelligence of their day. They shelter their ignorance, their indolence, or their envy under a loud profession of zeal for what they call "a minister's proper work."

Mr Fleming's "banishment to Shetland," as he called his settlement in Bressay, was not without its advantages. Fresh opportunities frequently occurred for the application of his talents as a naturalist; and these were readily embraced. On the same month on which the mineralogical report was published he communicated a paper to the Wernerian Society, "On the Narwal or Sea Unicorn." The notice is illustrated by drawings by himself, and contains a very clear description of its general appearance and structure. It was forwarded in MSS. to Sir Joseph Banks, who favoured him with the following letter:

"I am much obliged to you for the intelligent account of the Narwhale, lately thrown upon your coast, which I have received in due course. I agree with you in thinking it the same species as that described by Le Cepede, whose information was wholly derived from me. When he was about to finish his book, he wrote to me for assistance, and I readily furnished him with such unpublished information as happened to be in my possession; but he, like a true Frenchman, gave himself little trouble to understand what was written under the drawing of the narwhale, which stated it to have been taken at Frieston, a village near Boston,* in Lincolnshire. The animal, when found, had buried the whole of its body in the mud of which the beach there is composed, and seemed safely and securely waiting the return of the tide. A fisherman going to his boat saw the horn, which was not covered up, and trying to pull it out of the mud, raised the animal, who stirred himself hastily to secure his horn from the attack. From these circumstances, I am led to believe that he was much at his ease in the place he was in, and well able, though probably a native of more northern regions, to live in our seas. The additional infor

* Le Cepede describes the specimen sent by Sir Joseph Banks as having been taken at Boston, America!

mation of your letter enables us to feel safe in concluding the animal as belonging to the British Islands, and entering it in our catalogues accordingly."

At the close of the same year Mr Fleming sent to the "Wernerian" several papers entitled "Contributions to the British Fauna." In these he describes distinctly for the first time, as natives of Britain, the Water Shrew (Sorex fodiens)—the Top-knot Turbot (Pleuronectes punctatus; Rhombus punctatus of Cuvier)—the Fascicle Barnacle (Lepus fascicularis)– the Skate Leech (Hirudo verrucosa)*—Echinus (miliaris)— and the Zoophytes-Lucernaria fascicularis-Caryophyllia Cyathus, Fungia turbinata, and Flustra Ellisii.

*Not, however, as he thought, distinct from Hirudo muricata of Linnæus.

ΧΙ

CHAPTER II. 1810 to 1820.

Flisk-Lectures on Chemistry-Habit of the Eye-Mineralogy of St Andrews -Marriage-An Help-meet-Honours-Patrick Neill-Mineralogy of the Redhead Mr Sowerby-Ure's History-Cork Institution Lectureship—– Trap and Old Red Sandstone-Paper for the Royal Society-Work in 1819 Ichthyology-Dr Barclay.

IN 1810, Mr Fleming exchanged the remote living of Bressay for one nearer the centre of reviving ecclesiastical life, of thought, and of scientific study. On the presentation of Lord Dundas he was translated to Flisk, Fifeshire, a parish bordering on Kilmany, where Dr Chalmers was at that time minister. Under date Sept. 1810, Chalmers wrote in his diary:—“Walked to Monzie. At dinner we had Mr Fleming, presentee to Flisk; accomplished in some interesting branches of science, and promises to be a great acquisition to me, from the congeniality of some of our pursuits." Again,-"Had a long walk with Mr Fleming, and am happy to find that he expresses a high sense of duty on the subject of the clerical office."

He now set himself very earnestly, as occasion offered, to carry out the views which, at an early period, he had formed, of what should be his work in natural science. Like John Ray, he studied the works of the Creator to discover "The wisdom of God in Creation." But he knew that, in order to become a successful expounder of the thoughts of God in creation, the highest scientific attainments were needful. Only thus could he speak with authority. What ambition so noble as to seek to illustrate, in the life and experience of one man, the perfect harmony between profound and original knowledge in science, and simple faith in God as a covenant God-between the highest efforts of reason in the study, classification, and interpretation of nature, and love for the person of Jesus Christ, revealed to us

in the Bible? It is not indeed held that no other motives influenced him in his work. He sought

"In brave poursuitt of honorable deed"

to make himself a name among his fellows. He loved science, and was not a little under the power of a lawful ambition to be noted as an eminent and successful student of it.

The ways by which these views could then, as now, be realised, were two, namely, the Press, and public Lectures. To both he had recourse when settled in Flisk. His contributions to public journals and to learned societies became frequent; and, in 1811, he issued a pamphlet of sixteen pages, containing very full outlines of a course of lectures, to be delivered in Cupar, on Chemistry and Natural History. In a prefatory note he says:—

"In this course of Lectures it is proposed to explain the doctrines of Chemistry by a series of experiments, to point out its useful application to the arts, the manufactures, and the purposes of common life; and to convey a general knowledge of Natural History, illustrating the doctrines of Mineralogy, Botany, and Zoology by an exhibition of specimens." In the outline of the first lecture, he makes a distinction between Natural History and Natural Science, and under Chemistry he jots down-"It is a science highly useful and important, as it explains many of the Phenomena of Nature-illustrates the Principles of a number of the Arts-contributes to the comfort of Life-augments our Power over Material Objects—and affords a striking display of the Wisdom and Goodness of the Great First Cause."

This outline is not only interesting, as shewing the wide range of subjects on which he had long meditated, but as forming the basis of his first great work, "The Philosophy of Zoology." It shews, too, what good use he had made of his opportunities for observing nature. He let no occasion slip of adding to his own information, or to that of those who, at a distance from him, were earnestly at work in the same pursuits. A fish, not before known to frequent our shores, is accidentally entangled in the nets of the northern fishermen, and forthwith he makes a drawing of it, and forwards a description of its form and structure to the Wernerian Society. A new Zoophyte. is found in the refuse of the Zetlander's trawl; a bird, not before observed in Scotland, crosses his path; a flower, undescribed

by Lightfoot or by Smith, is noticed by the wayside or in the wood; these are accepted as prizes, correctly described, a place assigned to them in the generalizations of science, and are forwarded to his friends-the fish to Neill or Jameson-the Zoophyte to Leach—the bird to Montagu-the plant to Don. A good illustration of this habit of the eye occurs in a letter to Professor Jameson, (1812). While walking, to fulfil a ministerial engagement, along the shore of the Tay from Invergowerie eastward to Dundee, he was struck with the look of the rocks, the relative position of the sandstone to the porphyry, &c., and straightway he transmitted to the professor a sketch of their appearances, with specimens to illustrate their mineral characteristics. Soon after he is led, in the same way, to give his attention to "The Rocks in the neighbourhood of St Andrews." The Wernerian was again the channel through which his observations were made known to contemporary geologists. The paper on the rocks of St Andrews contains several of those somewhat bitter hits which he was ever in the habit of dealing at the grand speculations, as he called them, "whose bases eluded even a very powerful lens." It was in this contribution also that he drew the attention of geologists for the first time to the well known "Rock and Spindle." His views of it are substantially the same as those afterwards given by Sir Charles Lyell.* His references to Hutton are worth quoting,

"In this place, he says, I may take the liberty of observing that the closet mineralogist may indulge in hypothetical speculations regarding the formation of minerals; but such conjectures will never aid, the cause of science, or make us acquainted with the secrets of nature.† I have no doubt but that Dr Hutton, upon examining a specimen of the Septarium iron-ore, was gratified with the idea of having found a convincing proof of the igneous consolidation of fossils, and regarded his explanation of the singular structure of that mineral as the only one which approached the truth. But we hesitate not to say that, had that ingenious philosopher ever attended to the natural history of the Septarium,-had he ever examined it in its clayey bed, completely surrounded with matter which presented no marks of igneous influence, he could not have avoided drawing * Elements, p. 433, 3d Edit. 1851.

Here his jealousy of theory leads him to extreme views.