This Tale is evidently the production of no ordinary Writer; and, though we are shocked at the idea of the event on which the fiction is founded, many parts of it are strikingly good, and the description of the scenery is excellent.

In the pride of Science, the Hero of the Tale presumes to take upon himself the structure of a human being; in which, though he in some degree is supposed to have succeeded, he forfeits every comfort of life, and finally even life itself.

[Quotation from the Preface to the 1818 edition, with reference to a talented writer, one of two friends.]

If we mistake not, this friend was a Noble Poet.