text:  We have given the book and the subject more space than we intended and certainly much more than the former by itself is worth; but the subject is one that whether magnified into an undue importance by having been repeatedly treated by men of note and learning or not does in the present state of European literature stand high among the loftiest marks aimed at by human intellect; and any one singling himself from the crowd of lookers-on and addressing himself to hit it makes himself for the moment the observed of the whole learned world and by his success or his failure acquires honour or brings down reproach upon his country