DR. MARTINEAU.
[To THE EDITOR or rum Se p:c r.trou."] SIR,—In your otherwise excellent review (January 10th) of "The Life and Letters of Dr. Martineau" there is an omission of any reference to the rare quality of his English. In a wide reading of philosophical works I have met nothing comparable with his felicitous style.. Both Tyndall and Herbert Spencer spoke of his "gorgeous diction " ; the compliment was well meant, but quite inadequate. His, philosophic writings are characterised by an exquisite fitness of phrase, showing a rare instinct for the right word which receives fresh vitality from its setting. Dr. Martineau's intellect was of that penetrating kind which sees through and through an argument, detects the incongruous, and , the lurking fallacy, and exposes them with a flash of humorous
wit, or witty humour. In a controversy with Tyndall, he said of one of the Professor's arguments, "This is not science, it is a decretal adorned with a scientific nimbus" ! In illustrating the futility of trying to grasp the idea of the Infinite, he said it was like sailors trying to take the sea on board the boat ! His admirers could adorn your correspondence columns with many such gems. That in estimating the great philosophic divine his rare literary faculty should have been so completely overlooked in nearly all the reviews of his biography is unaccountable.—I am, [We certainly did not omit to praise Dr. Martineau's style from any failure to appreciate his rare and delightful gift of letters ; but our correspondent must remember that a review does not profess to be comprehensive, but rather to dwell upon certain selected aspects of the subject with which it deals.—ED. Spectator.'
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