[The identification of quotations has been omitted for this essay in order
to allow students an opportunity to try it for themselves.]
The third and fourth paragraphs of this essay had appeared in a letter of
Hazlitt's to the Examiner (Works, III, 152). The entire essay was first
published in the third number of the Liberal (see note to p. 244).
P. 277. _W--m_. Wem.
P. 281. _Murillo_ (1617-1682) and _Velasquez_ (1599-1660) are the two
greatest Spanish painters.
_nothing--like what he has done_. In the essay "On Depth and
Superficiality" ("Plain Speaker"), Hazlitt characterizes Coleridge as "a
great but useless thinker."
P. 282. _Adam Smith_ (1723-1790), founder of the science of political
economy, author of "The Wealth of Nations" (1776).
_huge folios_. In the essay "On Pedantry" ("Round Table") Hazlitt writes:
"In the library of the family where we were brought up, stood the _Fratres
Poloni_; and we can never forget or describe the feeling with which not
only their appearance, but the names of the authors on the outside
inspired us. Pripscovius, we remember, was one of the easiest to
pronounce. The gravity of the contents seemed in proportion to the weight
of the volumes; the importance of the subjects increased with our
ignorance of them."
P. 283, n. Hazlitt's father was the author of "Discourses for the Use of
Families on the Advantages of a Free Enquiry and on the Study of the
Scriptures" (1790) and of "Sermons for the Use of Families" in two volumes
(1808).
P. 284. _Mary Wolstonecraft_ (1759-1797), author of the "Vindication of
the Rights of Woman" (1792).
_Mackintosh_, Sir James (1765-1832), wrote "Vindiciae Gallicae, a Defence of
the French Revolution and its English Admirers against the Accusations of
the Right Hon. Edmund Burke." Hazlitt writes of Mackintosh in the "Spirit
of the Age" as "one of the ablest and most accomplished men of the age,
both as a writer, a speaker, and a converser," and comparing him with
Coleridge, he remarks, "They have nearly an equal range of reading and of
topics of conversation; but in the mind of the one we see nothing but
_fixtures_, in the other every thing is fluid."
_Tom Wedgwood_ (1771-1805) was an associate of some of the literary men of
his day.
P. 285. _Holcroft_, Thomas (1745-1809), actor, dramatist, novelist, a
member of Godwin's group of radicals. His chief writings are "The Road to
Ruin" (1792), "Anna St. Ives" (1792), and "Hugh Trevor" (1794-97).
Holcroft's "Memoirs," written by himself, were edited and completed by
Hazlitt and published in 1816 (Works, II).
P. 286. _Hume_, David (1711-1776), historian and sceptic philosopher,
described by Hazlitt as "one of the subtlest and most metaphysical of all
metaphysicians." His chief writings are "A Treatise on Human Nature, being
an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral
Subjects" (1739-40), "Philosophical Essays" (1748), "Four Dissertations"
(1757).
P. 287. _Essay on Vision_. Hazlitt calls this "the greatest by far of all
his works and the most complete example of elaborate analytical reasoning
and particular induction joined together that perhaps ever existed."
(Works, XI, 108).
_Tom Paine_ (1737-1809), an influential revolutionary writer, author of
"Common Sense" (1776), a pamphlet advocating American independence,
"Rights of Man" (1791), a reply to Burke's "Reflections on the French
Revolution," and "The Age of Reason" (1795). He also took an active part
in both the American and French revolutions.
_prefer the unknown to the known_. Cf. the first essay "On the
Conversation of Authors": "Coleridge withholds his tribute of applause
from every person, in whom any mortal but himself can descry the least
glimpse of understanding. He would be thought to look farther into a
millstone than any body else. He would have others see with his eyes, and
take their opinions from him on trust, in spite of their senses. The more
obscure and defective the indications of merit, the greater his sagacity
and candour in being the first to point them out. He looks upon what he
nicknames _a man of genius_, but as the breath of his nostrils, and the
clay in the potter's hands. If any such inert, unconscious mass, under the
fostering care of the modern Prometheus, is kindled into life,--begins to
see, speak, and move, so as to attract the notice of other people,--our
jealous patroniser of latent worth in that case throws aside, scorns, and
hates his own handy-work; and deserts his intellectual offspring from the
moment they can go alone and shift for themselves."
_a discovery on the same subject_. Hazlitt's first publication, "On the
Principles of Human Action."
P. 288. _I sat down to the task_, etc. Cf. "On Application to Study"
("Plain Speaker"): "If what I write at present is worth nothing, at least
it costs me nothing. But it cost me a great deal twenty years ago. I have
added little to my stock since then, and taken little from it. I 'unfold
the book and volume of the brain,' and transcribe the characters I see
there as mechanically as any one might copy the letters in a sampler. I do
not say they came there mechanically--I transfer them to the paper
mechanically." See also p. 345.
P. 289. _which ... he has somewhere told himself_. "Biographia Literaria,"
ch. 10.
_that other Vision of Judgment_. Byron's.
_Bridge-Street Junto_. "The Constitutional Association or, as it was
called by its opponents, 'The Bridge Street Gang,' founded in 1821 'to
support the laws for suppressing seditious publications, and for defending
the country from the fatal influence of disloyalty and sedition.' The
Association was an ill-conducted party organisation and created so much
opposition by its imprudent prosecutions that it very soon disappeared.
See an article in the Edinburgh Review for June, 1822." Waller-Glover, VI,
487.
P. 290. _at Tewkesbury_. In the essay "On Going a Journey," Hazlitt refers
to this episode as occurring at Bridgewater: "I remember sitting up half
the night to read Paul and Virginia, which I picked up at an inn in
Bridgewater, after being drenched in the rain all day; and at the same
place I got through two volumes of Madame D'Arblay's Camilla."
_Paul and Virginia_ (1788), a sentimental novel by Bernardin St. Pierre
(1737-1814).
P. 291. _Camilla_ (1796), a novel by Fanny Burney (1752-1840).
_a friend of the poet's_. "This is a mistake. Wordsworth paid L23 a year
for Alfoxden. The agreement is given in Mrs. Henry Sandford's 'Thomas
Poole and His Friends,' I, 225." Waller-Glover.
P. 292. _In the outset of life_. Alongside of this paragraph should be
read the essay "On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth," Works, XII, 150.
P. 294. _Chantrey_, Sir Francis (1781-1842). His bust of Wordsworth is now
at Cole-Orton.
_Haydon_, Benjamin Robert (1786-1846), a celebrated English painter who
was intimate with many literary men. In the picture referred to Haydon
also introduced a portrait of Hazlitt.
_Monk Lewis_. Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818) wrote among other things a
sensational novel, "The Monk" (1795), which gained him his nickname. "The
Castle Spectre" was originally produced at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1797.
P. 295. _Tom Poole_ (1765-1837), friend and patron of Coleridge.
P. 296. _Sir Walter Scott's_, etc. Probably a reference to the banquet
given to George IV by the Magistrates of Edinburgh and attended by Scott,
August 24, 1822.
_Blackwood_, William (1776-1834), the Edinburgh publisher.
_Gaspar Poussin_ (1613-1675). His real name was Dughet, but he changed it
out of respect to his brother-in-law, Nicholas Poussin.
_Domenichino_ or Domenico Zampieri (1581-1641), a painter of Bologna.
P. 297. _Death of Abel_ (1758), an idyllic-pastoral poem by Solomon
Gessner (1730-1788), a German poet of the Swiss school who enjoyed a wide
popularity in the eighteenth century.
P. 298. _since the days of Henry II_. As Henry II lived in the twelfth
century, and as neither Coleridge nor Wordsworth ever refer to the
language of Henry II as their standard, the statement in the text may
probably be considered as a blunder of Hazlitt's.
_He spoke with contempt of Gray and with intolerance of Pope._ Cf.
"Biographia Literaria," ch. 2: "I felt almost as if I had been newly
couched, when, by Mr. Wordsworth's conversation, I had been induced to
re-examine with impartial strictness Gray's celebrated Elegy. I had long
before detected the defects in The Bard; but the Elegy I had considered as
proof against all fair attacks; and to this day I can not read either
without delight, and a portion of enthusiasm. At all events whatever
pleasure I may have lost by the clearer perception of the faults in
certain passages, has been more than repaid to me by the additional
delight with which I read the remainder." In his "Table Talk," October 23,
1833, Coleridge says again: "I think there is something very majestic in
Gray's Installation Ode; but as to the Bard and the rest of his lyrics, I
must say I think them frigid and artificial." Of Pope and his followers he
writes ("Biographia Literaria," ch. 1): "I was not blind to the merits of
this school, yet, as from inexperience of the world, and consequent want
of sympathy with the general subjects of these poems, they gave me little
pleasure, I doubtless undervalued the kind, and with the presumption of
youth withheld from its masters the legitimate name of poets. I saw that
the excellence of this kind consisted in just and acute observations on
men and manners in an artificial state of society, as its matter and
substance, and in the logic of wit, conveyed in smooth and strong
epigrammatic couplets, as its form; that even when the subject was
addressed to the fancy, or the intellect, as in the Rape of the Lock, or
the Essay on Man; nay, when it was a consecutive narration, as in that
astonishing product of matchless talent and ingenuity, Pope's Translation
of the Iliad; still a point was looked for at the end of each second line,
and the whole was, as it were, a _sorites_, or, if I may exchange a
logical for a grammatical metaphor, a conjunction disjunctive, of
epigrams. Meantime, the matter and diction seemed to me characterized not
so much by poetic thoughts, as by thoughts translated into the language of
poetry."
_he thought little of Junius as a writer_. Cf. Coleridge's "Table Talk,"
July 3, 1833: "The style of Junius is a sort of metre, the law of which is
a balance of thesis and antithesis. When he gets out of his aphorismic
metre into a sentence of five or six lines long, nothing can exceed the
slovenliness of the English."
_dislike for Dr. Johnson_. Cf. "Table Talk," July 4, 1833: "Dr. Johnson's
fame now rests principally upon Boswell. It is impossible not to be amused
with such a book. But his _bow-wow_ manner must have had a good deal to do
with the effect produced.... As to Burke's testimony to Johnson's powers,
you must remember that Burke was a great courtier; and after all, Burke
said and wrote more than once that he thought Johnson greater in talking
than in writing, and greater in Boswell than in real life."
_opinion of Burke_. Cf. "Table Talk," April 8, 1833: "Burke was indeed a
great man. No one ever read history so philosophically as he seems to have
done.... He would have been more influential if he had less surpassed his
contemporaries, as Fox and Pitt, men of much inferior minds, in all
respects."
_He liked Richardson, but not Fielding._ On this subject Coleridge
evidently changed his mind. Cf. "Table Talk," July 5, 1834: "What a master
of composition Fielding was! Upon my word, I think the OEdipus Tyrannus,
the Alchemist, and Tom Jones the three most perfect plots ever planned.
And how charming, how wholesome, Fielding always is! To take him up after
Richardson is like emerging from a sickroom heated by stoves into an open
lawn on a breezy day in May."
_Caleb Williams_, the chief novel of William Godwin.
P. 298, n. _He had no idea of pictures_. See p. 212.
_Buffamalco_. Cristofani Buonamico (1262-1351), also known as Buffalmacco,
a painter of Florence.
P. 300. _Elliston_, Robert William (1774-1813), actor and later manager of
the Drury Lane Theatre.
_still continues_. See p. 224 and n.