I got this e-mail today:
I have been meaning to write to you since the end of term. In teaching the American Enlightenment this spring — for the first time as a lecture course — I had occasion to re-read THE WAY OF IMPROVEMENT. Obviously I remembered it was a very good book, but I had forgotten just how good it was. To be able to put together so sophisticated a reading of Fithian and to write it in a way that undergraduates both got it and enjoyed makes it still a major achievement.
Best,
Ned
