viii PREFACE. 



to be tranfmitted for the inftruftion and 

 delight of ages and nations unborn, long, 

 long after the diurnal and menftrual ef- 

 fufions of anonymous journalifts had funk 

 into everlafting oblivion. He ought to 

 have held on the majeftic " tenor of his 

 way," equally regardlefs of their notice 

 and of their negleft, of their cenfure 

 and of their approbation, of their flat- 

 tery and of their frow^n. What matters 

 it to fuch a man, whether Etudes de la 

 Nature be abufed or extolled in the 

 Journal de Paris f He has unwittingly 

 conferred on his critics an immortality 

 not their own. One Home?^ has formed 

 ten thoufand critics, but all the critics 

 that ever exiiled could not conftitute 

 tlie ten thoufandth part of one Homer, 



It is a Angular phenomenon in the 

 Hiftory of the prefent Period, that the 

 Author of Studies of Nature^ the 



profefl^ed 



