350 THOMAS YOUNG. 



NOTE BY THE AUTHOR. 



The Journals having done me the honour to mention some- 

 times the numerous testimonies of good will and friendship 

 which Lord Brougham had shown me in 1834, as well in Scot- 

 land as in Paris, a word or two of explanation here seem indis- 

 pensable. The eloge of Dr. Young was read at a public sitting 

 of the Academy of Sciences, Nov. 26, 1832. At this period 

 I had never had any personal acquaintance with the writer in 

 the Edinburgh Review, and thus all charge of ingratitude must 

 fall to the ground. But could you not, some might perhaps 

 say, have suppressed entirely, when your paper was going to 

 the press, all that related to so unfortunate a controversy ? I 

 could have done so, and in fact the idea had occurred to me ; 

 but I soon renounced it. I know too well the elevated feel- 

 ings of my illustrious friend to fear that he will take offence at 

 my frankness in regard to a question on which I have a pro- 

 found conviction that the great extent of his geni!us has not 

 preserved him from error. The homage which I render to the 

 noble character of Lord Brougham in now publishing this pas- 

 sa>Te of the eloge of Young without any modification, is, in my 

 mind, sufficiently significant to render it needless to add a word 

 more. 



