William Blackwood to John Murray (May 1817): 'What a treat you have given to Mrs. B. and me in "Riley"! I never read anything so affecting and interesting. We cried over it yesterday like children. Surprising and almost incredible as the events are, yet there is a verity and touching simplicity, with a natural eloquence of language, which have perhaps never been surpassed. Our philosophers laugh at religious feeling, but if it were no more than a matter of taste, if they thought justly, they would acknowledge its power.'
