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.