'The other comprises those who were previously aware of these
high qualities,--and who, seeing in a book to which they
had looked for a lasting monument to your fame, a degree
of presumptuousness, irreverence, inaccuracy, hasty
generalization, and ultraism on many points, which they did
not expect, lament the haste in which you have written, and
the injustice which you have consequently done to so important
a task, and to your own powers of being and doing. To this
class I belong.
'I got the book as soon as it came out,--long before I
received the copy endeared by your handwriting,--and
devoted myself to reading it. I gave myself up to my natural
impressions, without seeking to ascertain those of others.
Frequently I felt pleasure and admiration, but more frequently
disappointment, sometimes positive distaste.
'There are many topics treated of in this book of which I am
not a judge; but I do pretend, even where I cannot criticize
in detail, to have an opinion as to the general tone of
thought. When Herschel writes his Introduction to Natural
Philosophy, I cannot test all he says, but I cannot err about
his fairness, his manliness, and wide range of knowledge.
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