human
Bentley seems to me an eminent instance of the extent to which intellectual powers of a most rare and admirable kind may be impaired by moral defects.
gpt
_Dissertation_, as Porson calls it, which not only defeated his enemies, but routed them completely. Bentley's _Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris_, with an answer to the objections of the Hon. C. Boyle, Esq., first appeared in 1699. De Quincey described it as one of the three most triumphant dissertations existing upon the class of historico-critical problems,
human
All three are loaded with a superfetation of evidence, and conclusive beyond what the mind altogether wishes. [7] In another place De Quincey points out the line of argument followed by Bentley:
gpt
It was by anachronisms of this character that Bentley detected the spuriousness of the letters ascribed to Phalaris. Sicilian towns, &c., were in those letters called by names that did not arise until that prince had been dead for centuries. Manufactures were mentioned that were of much later invention. As handles for this exposure of a systematic forgery, which oftentimes had a moral significance, these indications were valuable, and gave excessive brilliancy to that immortal dissertation of Bentley's.