The attempt of Des Murs was praiseworthy, but in effect it has utterly failed, notwithstanding the encomiums passed upon it by friendly critics (Rev. de Zoologie, 1860, pp. 176-183,313-325,370-373).2 Until about this time systematists, almost without exception, may be said to have been wandering with no definite purpose.
The exceptional genius of Cotes earned encomiums from both his contemporaries and successors; Sir Isaac Newton said, "If Mr Cotes had lived, we should have known something."
He was the possessor of a clear and graceful, if somewhat florid, style, which showed to special advantage in his numerous obituary notices or encomiums (collected and published in three volumes Zur Erinnerung an vorangegangene Freunde, 1888).
It may strike one as characteristically Jewish that extravagant and truly oriental encomiums were passed upon such legalists and Talmudists as Isaac Alfazi, Rashi or Maimonides; none the less the medieval Jews were able to produce and appreciate excellent literature of the most varied description.
