It seems to me very good and sound; though I am certainly not an impartial judge.

You will have done good service in calling the attention of scientific men to means and laws of philosophising.

As far as I could judge by the papers, your opponents were unworthy of you.

How miserably A.talked of my reputation, as if that had anything to do with it!...How profoundly ignorant B must be of the very soul of observation! About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorise; and I well remember some one saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours.

How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service! I have returned only lately from a two months' visit to Torquay, which did my health at the time good; but I am one of those miserable creatures who are never comfortable for twenty-four hours; and it is clear to me that I ought to be exterminated.