Note 528 — Chapter I · WORDSWORTH AND COLERIDGE: THEIR COMPANIONS AND ADVERSARIES. (continued 2)

In connection with Sir Walter, one may pay a note of tribute to the extreme and now too little known critical ability of his “discoverer,” J. L. Adolphus, whose Letters to Heber on the Authorship of Waverley would come in well as an excursus-subject. Examining, as he did, certain known works of an at least hypothetically unknown writer, he was bound to give that attention to the work itself, which was the great thing necessary; and he gave it with remarkable ability, craftsmanship, and knowledge of literature.