The life and correspondence of Andrew Combe / By George Combe.

  • George Combe
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life and correspondence of Andrew Combe / By George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of his private life, and was at the same time willing and otherwise qualified to execute the task; and, secondly, that from the copiousness of the materials left, Dr Combe could be rendered, to a great extent, his own biographer. On examining the manuscripts, they were found to be of so miscellaneous a character that they did not admit of arrangement in reference to their subjects : The chronological order, therefore, remained as the only one available, and it has been followed. It is attended with the disadvantages of desultoriness and repetition : but any artificial classification according to topics would have been accompanied by the greater evils of constraint, and also of imperfect development ; for the materials do not consist of essays written In a sys- tematic form, but of familiar letters, in which topics of importance are introduced, and partially discussed, with- out any view to a full elucidation, or, in general, to publication. They possess, however, the freedom and freshness of spontaneous effusion, which is the natural compensation for diffuseness and repetition; and as Dr Combe was a systematic thinker, they are characterised by a degree of unity of design, and consistency of exe- cution, which preserves them from being a collection of mere heterogeneous thoughts and impressions. It would be difficult to describe the painful anxiety with which the Author of the work proceeded in the execution of his duty. He endeavoured to view the materials in the light in which they might be supposed to appear to liberal and intelligent readers, and reject- ed or admitted them according to his anticipation of
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