First published in the "Eloquence of the British Senate" and republished
in "Political Essays."
P. 172. _The following speech_. Hazlitt refers to the speech On the
Economic Reform (February 11, 1780). See Burke's Works, ed. Bohn, II,
55-126.
P. 174. _the elephant to make them sport_. "Paradise Lost" IV, 345.
_native and endued_. "Hamlet," iv, 7, 180.
_Lord Chatham_. William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1708-1778), the great
English statesman.
P. 176. _a new creation_. Goldsmith's "Traveler," 296.
P. 178. _All the great changes_. Cf. Morley's "Life of Burke," ch. 8: "All
really profound speculation about society comes in time to touch the heart
of every other object of speculation, not by directly contributing new
truths or directly corroborating old ones, but by setting men to consider
the consequences to life of different opinions on these abstract subjects,
and their relations to the great paramount interests of society, however
those interests may happen at the time to be conceived. Burke's book marks
a turning-point in literary history, because it was the signal for that
reaction over the whole field of thought, into which the Revolution drove
many of the finest minds of the next generation, by showing the supposed
consequences of pure individualistic rationalism."
P. 179. _Alas! Leviathan_. Cowper's "Task," II, 322.
_the corner stone_. Psalms, cxvii, 22.
_to the Jews_. 1 Corinthians, i, 23.
P. 183. _the consequences of his writings_. In this view Hazlitt has the
full support of Lord Morley.
P. 184. _How charming_. Milton's "Comus," 476.
_He was one of the severest writers we have._ The description of Burke's
style which follows should be compared with that given on pp. 344-5 and
with the splendid passage in the "Plain Speaker" essay "On the Prose Style
of Poets," beginning: "It has always appeared to me that the most perfect
prose-style, the most powerful, the most dazzling, the most daring, that
which went the nearest to the verge of poetry, and yet never fell over,
was Burke's. It has the solidity, and sparkling effect of the diamond; all
other _fine writing_ is like French paste or Bristol-stones in the
comparison. Burke's style is airy, flighty, adventurous, but it never
loses sight of the subject; nay, is always in contact with, and derives
its increased or varying impulse from it. It may be said to pass yawning
gulfs 'on the unsteadfast footing of a spear:' still it has an actual
resting-place and tangible support under it--it is not suspended on
nothing. It differs from poetry, as I conceive, like the chamois from the
eagle: it climbs to an almost equal height, touches upon a cloud,
overlooks a precipice, is picturesque, sublime--but all the while, instead
of soaring through the air, it stands upon a rocky cliff, clambers up by
abrupt and intricate ways, and browzes on the roughest bark, or crops the
tender flower."
P. 186. _the set or formal style_. See pp. 147-8.
P. 187. _Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents_ (1770), a
criticism of the ministerial policy of the English government under George
III.
_Reflections on the Revolution in France_ (1790), a severe arraignment of
the principles which inspired the revolution and a prophetic warning of
its consequences.
_Letter to the Duke of Bedford_. A Letter from the Right Hon. Edmund
Burke, to a Noble Lord, on the attacks made upon him and his pension, in
the House of Lords, by the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale,
early in the present session of Parliament. (1706.)
_Regicide Peace_. Three Letters addressed to a Member of the Present
Parliament, on the proposals for peace with the regicide Directory of
France. (1796.)
P. 188. _Fox_, Charles James (1749-1806), the famous Whig statesman who
was frequently the opponent of Burke and of the younger Pitt.
P. 189. _Dr. Johnson observed_, in his "Life of Pope" (ed. Birkbeck Hill,
III, 230): "In their similes the greatest writers have sometimes failed;
the ship-race, compared with the chariot-race, is neither illustrated nor
aggrandised; land and water make all the difference: when Apollo running
after Daphne is likened to a greyhound chasing a hare, there is nothing
gained; the ideas of pursuit and flight are too plain to be made plainer,
and a god and the daughter of a god are not represented much to their
advantage by a hare and a dog."
_a person_. Conjecturally Joseph Fawcett. In the essay "On Criticism"
("Table Talk") Hazlitt says: "The person of the most refined and least
contracted taste I ever knew was the late Joseph Fawcett, the friend of my
youth. He was almost the first literary acquaintance I ever made, and I
think the most candid and unsophisticated. He had a masterly perception of
all styles and of every kind and degree of excellence, sublime or
beautiful, from Milton's Paradise Lost to Shenstone's Pastoral Ballad,
from Butler's Analogy down to Humphrey Clinker."
P. 189, n. _the comparison of the British Constitution_. "Letter to a
Noble Lord," Works, ed. Bohn, V, 137.