(Go to Summary of review of Modern Painters II, Church of England Quarterly Review, July 1846
It was an experiment arising out of no ordinary courage to challenge public attention... on a subject which, in these days of utilitarianism, could scarcely be expected to interest the reading public to an extent remunerative of paper and print; yet we find a third edition of the first volume announced. The influence of that volume in raising the price of modern pictures, we mean by British artists, to the depreciation of the works of the ancient masters - when justly or not we do not venture to decide - has been exemplified in a very striking degree by the result of several recent sales. We know, also, that its effect on public opinion has been such that many persons intimately connected with art and artists, and even artists themselves, who first received the volume with wonder, if not with a less flattering feeling, at the rashness and quixotism of the assault "against the world in arms", have greatly moderated their tone, and many have become converts to opinions evidently based on a profound knowledge of Art, and a still more profound knowledge of Nature. (p. 203)