he depicts is especially that of the naturally melancholy and passionate, who exalt and refine their feelings even to themselves."
Edward Lorraine.—"I am not sure whether even the wittiest—the most seemingly gay passages, do not rather favour your view; the satire is that of sarcasm, as if society had forced knowledge upon him, and the knowledge was bitter, and the very keenness of the perception gave point to the expression; indeed, in most of his observations, I have been struck with their truth even before their wit."
Mr. Morland.—" I know no writer who has united so much philosophy with so much imagination; hence his views will have such effect on his time. He uses his power to make us feel—chiefly to make us think; it is the consequences he draws from his creations which force reflection to succeed to interest. Read his pages dispassionately, after the first vivid effect of the story is departed, and you will be surprised to observe the vast mass of moral investigation and truth which they contain. His very poetry is full of this spirit; witness a simile, exquisite for its turn and thought—
'Autumn, which, like ambition, gilds ere it withers.'"
