One explanation of this inconsistency lay in the fact that no other channel was open to his literary impulses.

Pure science could not serve him, for he had no original results to announce.

Pure literature seemed beyond his scope, yet he was constantly endeavouring to express himself.

He burned with the desire of fame, and saw no hope of achieving it save as an author.
_The Liberator_ would serve him as a first step.

In time he might get foothold in the monthly reviews, and see his name side by side with those of the leaders of thought.
Occasions, of course, offered when he might have extended his acquaintance, but they were never of a kind that he cared to use; at best they would only have admitted him to the homes of decent, semi-educated families, and for such society he was altogether unfitted.