Viewed in the light of his life, the _Rambler_ is one of the most moving of books.

If its literary value is slight it is a document in character.
So that when he came to his own, when gradually the public whom he despised and neglected raised him into a pontifical position matched by none before him in England and none since save Carlyle, he was sure of himself; success did not spoil him.

His judgment was unwarped by flattery.

The almost passionate tenderness and humanity which lay beneath his gruffness was undimmed.

His personality triumphed in all the fullness and richness which had carried it in integrity through his years of struggle.