“It is a book easily understood, and repaying the reader on every page with sentiments true to experience, and expressed often with surprising beauty.”—­Presbyterian.

“One of the most thoughtful, brilliant, and finished productions of the age.”—­Banner of the Cross.

“For poetic imagery, for brightness of thought, for clear and striking views of all the interests and conditions of man, this work has been pronounced by the English and American press as unequalled.”—­Literary Messenger.

“The principal work of Martin Farquhar Tupper, ‘Proverbial Philosophy,’ is instinct with the spirit of genial hopeful love:  and to this mainly should be attributed the vast amount of sympathetic admiration it has attracted, not only in this country, but also in the United States.”—­English Review.

“We congratulate ourselves, for the sake of our land’s language, on this noble addition to her stock of what Dr. Johnson justly esteems ’the highest order of learning.’  If Mr. Tupper be not the high priest of his profession, he is at least no undignified minister of the altar.  The spirit of a noble hope animates the exercise of his high function.”—­Parthenon.

“We know not whether Mr. Tupper, when he was pouring forth the contents of these glorious volumes, intended to write prose or poetry; but if his object was the former, his end has not been accomplished.  ’Proverbial Philosophy’ is poetry assuredly; poetry exquisite, almost beyond the bounds of fancy to conceive, brimmed with noble thoughts, and studded with heavenward aspirations.”—­Church of England Journal.

“The ‘Proverbial Philosophy,’ which first established Mr. Tupper’s reputation, is a work of standard excellence.  It has met with unprecedented success, and many large editions of it have been sold.  It led to the author’s being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; and the King of Prussia, in token of his Majesty’s high approbation of the work, sent him the gold medal for science and literature.”—­Glasgow Examiner.

“This book is like a collection of miniature paintings on ivory, small, beautiful, highly finished, and heterogeneous:  in style something between prose and verse; not so rigid as to fetter the thought, not so free as to exclude absolute distinctness, with the turn and phrase of poetry.”—­Christian Remembrancer.

“There is more novelty in the sentiments, a greater sweep of subjects, and a finer sense of moral beauty displayed by Mr. Tupper, than we remember to have seen in any work of its class, excepting of course the ‘Proverbs of Solomon.’  We also discover in his ‘Philosophy’ the stores of extensive reading, and the indisputable proofs of habitual and devout reflection, as well as the workings of an elegant mind.”—­Monthly Review.

“Have we not now done enough to show that a poet of power and of promise,—­a poet and philosopher both—­is amongst us to delight and instruct, to elevate and to guide.”—­Conservative Journal.