Winterslow: Essays and Characters Written ThereHazlitt, William
General
Winterslow: Essays and Characters Written There
Hazlitt, William
English essays
Burke also gave a hold to his antagonists by mixing up sentiment and
imagery with his reasoning; so that being unused to such a sight in
the region of politics, they were deceived, and could not discern the
fruit from the flowers. Gravity is the cloak of wisdom; and those who
have nothing else think it an insult to affect the one without the
other, because it destroys the only foundation on which their
pretensions are built. The easiest part of reason is dulness; the
generality of the world are therefore concerned in discouraging any
example of unnecessary brilliancy that might tend to show that the two
things do not always go together. Burke in some measure dissolved the
spell. It was discovered, that his gold was not the less valuable for
being wrought into elegant shapes, and richly embossed with curious
figures; that the solidity of a building is not destroyed by adding to
it beauty and ornament; and that the strength of a man's understanding
is not always to be estimated in exact proportion to his want of
imagination. His understanding was not the less real, because it was
not the only faculty he possessed. He justified the description of the
poet--
'How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute!'
Those who object to this union of grace and beauty with reason, are in
fact weak-sighted people, who cannot distinguish the noble and
majestic form of Truth from that of her sister Folly, if they are
dressed both alike! But there is always a difference even in the
adventitious ornaments they wear, which is sufficient to distinguish
them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account