Hazlitt on English Literature: An Introduction to the Appreciation of LiteratureHazlitt, William
History
Hazlitt on English Literature: An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature
Hazlitt, William
English literature -- History and criticism
[22] He tells of an experience in crossing the Alps which he intends
should be symbolic of his whole life. From a great distance he thought he
perceived Mont Blanc, but as the driver insisted that it was only a cloud,
"I supposed that I had taken a sudden fancy for a reality. I began in
secret to take myself to task, and to lecture myself for my proneness to
build theories on the foundation of my conjectures and wishes. On turning
round occasionally, however, I observed that this cloud remained in the
same place, and I noticed the circumstance to our guide, as favoring my
first suggestion; for clouds do not usually remain long in the same place.
We disputed the point for half a day, and it was not till the afternoon
when we had reached the other side of the lake of Neufchatel, that this
same cloud rising like a canopy over the point where it had hovered, 'in
shape and station proudly eminent,' he acknowledged it to be Mont Blanc."
_Notes of a Journey Through France and Italy._ Works, IX, 296.
[23] Andrew Lang's _Life of Lockhart_, I, 63. 128-130.
[24] John Scott, the editor of the _London Magazine_, was killed in a duel
arising from his retaliatory attacks on Lockhart and the Blackwood School
of Criticism. See _London Magazine_, II, 509, 666; III, 76, and
"Statement" prefatory to number for February, 1821.
[25] April, 1817.
[26] January, 1818.
[27] "I have been reading Frederick Schlegel.... He is like Hazlitt, in
English, who _talks pimples_--a red and white corruption rising up (in
little imitations of mountains upon maps), but containing nothing, and
discharging nothing, except their own humours." Byron's _Letters_, Jan.
28, 1821 (ed. Prothero, V, 191).
[28] Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke's _Recollections of Writers_, 147.
[29] Joseph Cottle: _Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge_, 465.
[30] Haydon's _Correspondence and Table Talk_, II, 32.
[31] _Plain Speaker_.
[32] _Characteristics_, CCCVII.
[33] "Characteristics," in Carlyle's _Critical and Miscellaneous Essays_
(Chapman and Hall, 1898), III, 32.
[34] "Letter of Elia to Robert Southey," Lamb's Works, ed. Lucas, I, 233.
[35] "On Criticism," in _Table Talk_.
[36] Life of Pope, Johnson's Lives, ed. Birkbeck Hill, IV, 248.
[37] Boswell's Johnson, ed. Birkbeck Hill, II, 89.
[38] _Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope_, I, 170.
[39] See an essay by John Foster on "Poetical Criticism," in _Critical
Essays_, ed. Bohn, I, 144.
[40] Gibbon's Journal, October 3, 1762. Miscellaneous Works, ed. 1814, V,
263.
[41] Review of Mrs. Hemans's Poems, _Edinburgh Review_, October, 1829.
Jeffrey's Works, III, 296.
[42] _Blackwood's Magazine_, II, 670-79.
[43] I, 281 (March, 1820).
[44] _Spirit of the Age_, "William Godwin."
[45] Works, ed. Shedd, IV, 35.
[46] Mr. Saintsbury has applied this phrase to Hazlitt himself, but we
prefer to transfer the honor.
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