Winterslow: Essays and Characters Written ThereHazlitt, William
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Winterslow: Essays and Characters Written There
Hazlitt, William
English essays
There are two very different ends which a man of genius may propose to
himself, either in writing or speaking, and which will accordingly
give birth to very different styles. He can have but one of these two
objects; either to enrich or strengthen the mind; either to furnish us
with new ideas, to lead the mind into new trains of thought, to which
it was before unused, and which it was incapable of striking out for
itself; or else to collect and embody what we already knew, to rivet
our old impressions more deeply; to make what was before plain still
plainer, and to give to that which was familiar all the effect of
novelty. In the one case we receive an accession to the stock of our
ideas; in the other, an additional degree of life and energy is
infused into them: our thoughts continue to flow in the same channels,
but their pulse is quickened and invigorated. I do not know how to
distinguish these different styles better than by calling them
severally the inventive and refined, or the impressive and vigorous
styles. It is only the subject-matter of eloquence, however, which is
allowed to be remote or obscure. The things themselves may be subtle
and recondite, but they must be dragged out of their obscurity and
brought struggling to the light; they must be rendered plain and
palpable (as far as it is in the wit of man to do so), or they are no
longer eloquence. That which by its natural impenetrability, and in
spite of every effort, remains dark and difficult, which is impervious
to every ray, on which the imagination can shed no lustre, which can
be clothed with no beauty, is not a subject for the orator or poet. At
the same time it cannot be expected that abstract truths or profound
observations should ever be placed in the same strong and dazzling
points of view as natural objects and mere matters of fact. It is
enough if they receive a reflex and borrowed lustre, like that which
cheers the first dawn of morning, where the effect of surprise and
novelty gilds every object, and the joy of beholding another world
gradually emerging out of the gloom of night, 'a new creation rescued
from his reign,' fills the mind with a sober rapture. Philosophical
eloquence is in writing what _chiaro-scuro_ is in painting; he would
be a fool who should object that the colours in the shaded part of a
picture were not so bright as those on the opposite side; the eye of
the connoisseur receives an equal delight from both, balancing the
want of brilliancy and effect with the greater delicacy of the tints,
and difficulty of the execution. In judging of Burke, therefore, we
are to consider, first, the style of eloquence which he adopted, and,
secondly, the effects which he produced with it. If he did not produce
the same effects on vulgar minds as some others have done, it was not
for want of power, but from the turn and direction of his mind.[10] It
was because his subjects, his ideas, his arguments, were less vulgar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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