The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 06 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 06 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
To conclude this subject. The most sensible people to be met with in
society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they
see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things
ought to be. Women have often more of what is called _good sense_ than
men. They have fewer pretensions; are less implicated in theories; and
judge of objects more from their immediate and involuntary impression on
the mind, and, therefore, more truly and naturally. They cannot reason
wrong; for they do not reason at all. They do not think or speak by
rule; and they have in general more eloquence and wit, as well as sense,
on that account. By their wit, sense, and eloquence together, they
generally contrive to govern their husbands. Their style, when they
write to their friends (not for the booksellers) is better than that of
most authors.—Uneducated people have most exuberance of invention, and
the greatest freedom from prejudice. Shakespear’s was evidently an
uneducated mind, both in the freshness of his imagination, and in the
variety of his views; as Milton’s was scholastic, in the texture both of
his thoughts and feelings. Shakespear had not been accustomed to write
themes at school in favour of virtue or against vice. To this we owe the
unaffected, but healthy tone of his dramatic morality. If we wish to
know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespear. If we wish to
see the insignificance of human learning, we may study his commentators.
ESSAY IX
THE INDIAN JUGGLERS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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