Seems vaguely Popperian

"But Mr. Casaubon’s theory of the elements which made the seed of all tradition was not likely to bruise itself unawares against discoveries: it floated among flexible conjectures no more solid than those etymologies which seemed strong because of likeness in sound until it was shown that likeness in sound made them impossible: it was a method of interpretation which was not tested by the necessity of forming anything which had sharper collisions than an elaborate notion of Gog and Magog: it was as free from interruption as a plan for threading the stars together.” -- George Eliot, Middlemarch

Here's a new book on the real Casaubon, Isaac Casaubon, reviewed here.

Update (Sept. 18, 2013): Someone else (Victor Gijsbers) has noticed Eliot's anticipation of Popper.