The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 04 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
Philosophy
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 04 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
and charities of private life, he is correct, exemplary, generous, just.
We never heard a single impropriety laid to his charge; and if he has
many enemies, few men can boast more numerous or stauncher friends.—The
variety and piquancy of his writings form a striking contrast to the
mode in which they are produced. He rises early, and writes or reads
till breakfast-time. He writes or reads after breakfast till dinner,
after dinner till tea, and from tea till bed-time—
‘And follows so the ever-running year
With profitable labour to his grave—’
on Derwent’s banks, beneath the foot of Skiddaw. Study serves him for
business, exercise, recreation. He passes from verse to prose, from
history to poetry, from reading to writing, by a stopwatch. He writes a
fair hand, without blots, sitting upright in his chair, leaves off when
he comes to the bottom of the page, and changes the subject for another,
as opposite as the Antipodes. His mind is after all rather the recipient
and transmitter of knowledge, than the originator of it. He has hardly
grasp of thought enough to arrive at any great leading truth. His
passions do not amount to more than irritability. With some gall in his
pen, and coldness in his manner, he has a great deal of kindness in his
heart. Rash in his opinions, he is steady in his attachments—and is a
man, in many particulars admirable, in all respectable—his political
inconsistency alone excepted!
MR. WORDSWORTH
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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