ℓ. 1

[Left side]
is more disgusted than I am at bad
criticism. How I have hated the Quar-
terly, the Edinburgh and Blackwood!
How I have longed for their utter ex-
tinction! And how exasperated I have
felt with Dr. Johnson or in our times
with the snarls of the Athenæum!
But what offends me even more than
wicked criticism is feebleness, such as
you find in Forbiger, and I have seen
a conspicuous instance of lately in George
Brimley's Essays, in the critique on Ten-
nyson. This Brimley was a well-mean-
ing, well-educated man, with much
good sense, judgement and even in some
cases discernment and taste,
at whose death his friends published
the essays which bear his name. You
could only understand by reading
him, how all the good qualities I have
given him are ruined by what Ruskin
would call "gentlemanly feebleness".