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
of _Junius_!’ What a recognition for the public and the author! That
between Yorick and the Frenchman was a trifle to it.
We have said that we think the desire to be known by name as an author
chiefly has a reference to those to whom we are known personally, and is
strongest with regard to those who know most of our persons and least of
our capacities. We wish to _subpœna_ the public to our characters. Those
who, by great services or great meannesses, have attained titles, always
take them from the place with which they have the earliest associations,
and thus strive to throw a veil of importance over the insignificance of
their original pretensions, or the injustice of fortune. When Lord
Nelson was passing over the quay at Yarmouth, to take possession of the
ship to which he had been appointed, the people exclaimed, ‘Why make
that little fellow a captain?’ He thought of this when he fought the
battles of the Nile and Trafalgar. The same sense of personal
insignificance which made him great in action made him a fool in love.
If Bonaparte had been six inches higher, he never would have gone on
that disastrous Russian expedition, nor ‘with that addition’ would he
ever have been Emperor and King. For our own parts, one object which we
have in writing these Essays, is to send them in a volume to a person
who took some notice of us when children, and who augured, perhaps,
better of us than we deserved. In fact, the opinion of those who know us
most, who are a kind of second self in our recollections, is a sort of
second conscience; and the approbation of one or two friends is all the
immortality _we_ pretend to.
A.
NO. 26.] CHARACTER OF JOHN BULL [MAY 19, 1816.
In a late number of a respectable publication, there is the following
description of the French character:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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