or description of phenomena, whenever his feelings are enlisted
either way, must be taken with the proverbial "grain of salt" by all
when enjoying the luxury of perusing his books. So complete is his
self-identification with the sect or individual for the time being
engrossing his sympathy, that even their personal antipathies are
made his own; and the hostile language, often exaggerated and unjust,
in which those antipathies find vent, secures in his more chastened
mode of utterance an exact reproduction none the less injurious
because divested of grossness.

Of this special phase of self-manifestation a typical instance is
afforded at page 164, under the heading of "Dominica," in a passage
which at once embraces and accentuates the whole spirit and method of
the work. To a eulogium of the professional skill and successful
[30] agricultural enterprise of Dr. Nichol, a medical officer of
that Colony, with whom he became acquainted for the first time during
his short stay there, our author travels out of his way to tack on a
gratuitous and pointless sneer at the educational competency of all
the elected members of the island legislature, among whom, he tells
us, the worthy doctor had often tried in vain to obtain a place. His
want of success, our author informs his readers, was brought about
through Dr. Nichol "being the only man in the Colony of superior
attainments." Persons acquainted with the stormy politics of that
lovely little island do not require to be informed that the bitterest
animosity had for years been raging between Dr. Nichol and some of
the elected members-a fact which our author chose characteristically
to regard as justifying an onslaught by himself on the whole of that
section of which the foes of his new friend formed a prominent part.

Swayed by the above specified motives, our author also manages to see