The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 01 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 01 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
intense feeling which enabled him to discern the first principles of
things, and seize some one view of a subject in all its ramifications,
prevented him from admitting the operation of other causes which
interfered with his favourite purpose, and involved him in endless
wilful contradictions. Hence his excessive egotism, which filled all
objects with himself, and would have occupied the universe with his
smallest interest. Hence his jealousy and suspicion of others; for no
attention, no respect or sympathy, could come up to the extravagant
claims of his self-love. Hence his dissatisfaction with himself and with
all around him; for nothing could satisfy his ardent longings after
good, his restless appetite of being. Hence his feelings, overstrained
and exhausted, recoiled upon themselves, and produced his love of
silence and repose, his feverish aspirations after the quiet and
solitude of nature. Hence in part also his quarrel with the artificial
institutions and distinctions of society, which opposed so many barriers
to the unrestrained indulgence of his will, and allured his imagination
to scenes of pastoral simplicity or of savage life, where the passions
were either not excited or left to follow their own impulse,—where the
petty vexations and irritating disappointments of common life had no
place,—and where the tormenting pursuits of arts and sciences were lost
in pure animal enjoyment, or indolent repose. Thus he describes the
first savage wandering for ever under the shade of magnificent forests,
or by the side of mighty rivers, smit with the unquenchable love of
nature!
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