Part 38 (1/2)

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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.s 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 n.o.ble 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 s.h.i.+p-race, compared with the chariot-race, is neither ill.u.s.trated 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 G.o.d and the daughter of a G.o.d 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 a.n.a.logy down to Humphrey Clinker.”

P. 189, n. _the comparison of the British Const.i.tution_. ”Letter to a n.o.ble Lord,” Works, ed. Bohn, V, 137.

MR. WORDSWORTH

From ”The Spirit of the Age.” Characterizations of Wordsworth also occur in the lecture ”On the Living Poets” and in the Essay ”On Genius and Common Sense” in ”Table Talk.”

P. 191. _lowliness is young ambition's ladder_. ”Julius Caesar,” ii, 1, 22.

_no figures_. Cf. ”Julius Caesar,” ii, 1, 231: ” Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies Which busy care draws in the brains of men.”

_skyey influences_. ”Measure for Measure,” iii, 1, 9.