text: " The letters of Du Deffand Espinasse Roland and even of De Stael though always exhibiting ability are too hard or too hot too fierce or too fond for our tastes; they are also so evidently intended for any human being except the one to whom they were addressed or rather for all human beings--they were so palpably "private effusions" for the public ear--sentiments stereotyped and sympathies for the circulating library--that they possessed as little the interest as the character of correspondence