text:  It was said that to establish certain favourite theories he availed himself of the testimony of travellers obscure and of doubtful credit; that he leapt too rapidly from particulars to general conclusions; that he ascribed to the influence of climate and physical laws what was in fact the result of moral or political causes; that he had split the same subject into small chapters so confusedly arranged that there was no order or system in the work; that it was still incomplete and wanted the master-hand which was to put it together; and that it resembled the detached pieces of a mosaic pavement each of which is fair or brilliant in itself but which have no meaning or expression till disposed by the taste and skill of the artist