The Quarterly, notes Hazlitt, was founded in reaction to the Edinburgh and to the latter's "spirit ... of fair and free discussion" in which "every question was tried upon its own ostensible merits, and there was no foul play. Hazlitt 1930, vol. But Hazlitt had begun to recognise the degree of imagination Scott had to apply in order to bring dry facts to life. IV", The London Magazine, April 1820, With Hazlitt's work attracting increased interest and undergoing intense scrutiny around this time, however, critics' attitudes toward The Spirit of the Age as a unified composition began to undergo a radical shift. It was this sort of contrariness, fuelled by "self-love", that, according to Kinnaird, is manifested in many of the later subjects of the essays in The Spirit of the Age. He is in this sense the most original poet now living...."[198], —William Hazlitt, "Mr. Wordsworth", The Spirit of the Age, Hazlitt notes that, in psychological terms, the underlying basis for what is essential in Wordsworth's poetry is the principle of the association of ideas. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Spirit of the Age Or, Contemporary Portraits. While as a satirist he is "violent ... abrupt [and] unmanly" (he had ridiculed a woman whose writing he disliked by pointing to her as hobbling on crutches),[262] "as an editor of old authors, Mr. Gifford is entitled to considerable praise for the pains he has taken in revising the text, and for some improvements he has introduced into it. Mr. Irving", "The Late Mr. Horne Tooke", "Sir Walter Scott", "Lord Byron", "Mr. Southey", "Mr. Wordsworth", "Sir James Mackintosh", "Mr. Malthus", "Mr. Gifford", "Mr. Jeffrey", "Mr. Brougham—Sir F. Burdett", "Lord Eldon—Mr. Hazlitt 1930, vol. He achieved a "witty documentary realism". Yet, also symptomatic of "the spirit of the age"—and the note Hazlitt strikes on the opening of his sketch—was the fact that Bentham had only a small following in England, yet enjoyed respectful celebrity in nations half a world away. Trailer to my video documentary on the New Age, "The Spirit of the Age: Fallen Angels and the Coming One World Spirituality." Byron's accomplishments will be judged by posterity. Park 1971, p. 236; Kinnaird 1978, p. 301; Paulin 1998, pp. Wardle 1971, p. 265; Grayling 2000, pp. "They ought to be translated into English. Eleven years later, in his summing up of Mackintosh's place among his contemporaries, as elsewhere in The Spirit of the Age, Hazlitt attempts a fair reassessment. A spirit that looks like a pile of mud is making its way toward the bathhouse. "[226] There is no mistaking what the man stands for: "In weighing his merits we come at once to the question of what he has done or failed to do. But neither that nor any other of his later writings sold as well as The Spirit of the Age. [328] These qualities, according to Hazlitt, are inherently contradictory and render Wilberforce ineffectual. "No one who has seen him at these moments could go away with the impression that he was a man 'of no mark or likelihood. When Knowles was 15 years old, Hazlitt, then earning a living primarily as a portrait painter, was commissioned to capture Knowles and his sister on canvas. & W. Galignani. "[349] To support his point, Hazlitt observes that when Napoleon invaded Spain, Canning urged the British to march to war to support the liberty of the Spanish people. Biographer Ralph Wardle, expanding on a suggestion of critic Patrick L. Story, raises the possibility that Hazlitt "could ... have written the entire piece after Byron's death and supplied the final sentences to protect himself against the charge that this frank appraisal of the dead poet was in questionable taste." 234–35. "[68], —William Hazlitt, "William Godwin", The Spirit of the Age, Hazlitt moves on to Godwin's accomplishments as a novelist. The Spirit of the Age: Or, Contemporary Portraits, Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, Dutch and Flemish painters of the 17th century, The Spirit of the Age; Or, Contemporary Portraits, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Spirit_of_the_Age&oldid=1013488443, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. 11, p. 169. P. P. Howe, in Hazlitt 1930, vol. Kinnaird 1978, pp. 11, pp. "On the Present State of Parliamentary Eloquence". "[182] His poetry is revolutionary in that it is equalizing. Book Summary Daniel Quinn's philosophical novel Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit opens with the narrator reading the newspaper and finding himself both disgruntled and intrigued by a personal advertisement. Moreover, "He sometimes trifles with his readers, or tires of a subject. The war between power and reason was carried on by the first of these abroad, by the last at home. "[196], Wordsworth's poetry conveys what is interesting in the commonest events and objects. [32], Another favourite of his own was "Character of Mr. Cobbett", which first appeared in Table-Talk in 1821 and was later incorporated into The Spirit of the Age. [384], In his 1818 Lectures, after severely censuring "The Pleasures of Hope", Hazlitt pauses to observe that Gertrude of Wyoming is better, with some bright spots. [342] As a speaker, Canning developed in the artificial climate of schools, first at Eton College and then at Oxford University. "[46], —William Hazlitt, "Jeremy Bentham", The Spirit of the Age, Bentham's refined and elaborated logic fails, in Hazlitt's assessment, to take into account the complexities of human nature. [131] Hazlitt recalls these characters in a rhapsodic passage, described by critic John Kinnaird as "a stunning pageant, two pages in length, of more than forty Scott characters, which he summons individually from his memory, citing for each some quality or act or association which makes them unforgettable. ... A wit and a poet, Mr. Hunt is also distinguished by fineness of tact and sterling sense: he has only been a visionary in humanity, the fool of virtue. The craving of the public mind after novelty and effect ... must be pampered with fine words at every step—we must be tickled with sound, startled with show, and relieved by the importunate, uninterrupted display of fancy and verbal tinsel as much as possible from the fatigue of thought or shock of feeling. The spirit of the age or the spirit of the times is the set of ideas, beliefs, and aims that is typical of people in a particular period in history. Hazlitt consistently misspells Irving's name as "Irvine". "[464] As such characters and customs hardly had any actual existence any more, Hazlitt even suggests that they might have been spun out of Irving's imagination, based on his reading of the English authors of the previous century. The account of Bentham, for example, was notable both as "the first sustained critique of dogmatic Utilitarianism"[55] and as a major anticipation of modern journalism. Hazlitt's biographer and editor, P. P. Howe, notes that Hazlitt reports that Irving only "glanced" at Canning, possibly refraining from a full-scale attack because the influential Canning had been instrumental in Irving's popularity. "A poet's cemetery is the human mind, in which he sows the seeds of never-ending thought—his monument is to be found in his works. There is no integration of his learning with his own thinking, no passion, nothing fused in the heat of imagination. What a thing is human life! ), Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) was an English philosopher, jurist, and social and legislative reformer. "[303] The very scope of his knowledge and interests, however, limits his abilities as a lawyer, as he cannot be bothered with small issues, preferring to focus on the broad issues affecting the world. He does not omit the meanest, least flattering aspects of human behaviour or the petty disappointments, the sickness and misery found in everyday life. [529] Hazlitt's account of Coleridge's intellectual development was especially spotlighted: "for three brilliant pages", observed critic John Kinnaird, "Hazlitt reviews the saga of Coleridge's voyage through strange seas of thought". Andrew Rutherford, who includes most of The Spirit of the Age essay on Lord Byron in an anthology of criticism of Byron, himself expresses the belief that Hazlitt had a "distaste for Byron's works". '"[458], "Geoffrey Crayon" was the pen name under which the American essayist, short-story writer, biographer, historian, and humourist Washington Irving (1783–1859) first became popular in Europe. Hazlitt 1930, vol. [151] Also counteracting his immense power, the tone of even some of the best of Byron's poetry is violated by annoying descents into the ridiculous. After addressing the public in an election he might on returning home complete an article, three or four of which would be published in a single number of the Edinburgh Review. He would force them to admire in spite of decency and common sense. "[456], Hazlitt then reflects further on Lamb's taste in literature and art, his abilities as a conversationalist, and his appearance and personal character. [391] Much older than most of his contemporary poets, Crabbe wrote in a style that harked back to the Augustan period,[392] with his first widely acclaimed poem, The Village, dating to 1783. ", Mr. Southey is "ever in extremes, and ever in the wrong! [408], Thomas Moore (1779–1852) was an Irish-born English poet, songwriter, satirist, and writer of miscellaneous prose. "[150] In this Byron follows most of his contemporaries, as Hazlitt argued in many of his critical writings, the tendency of the age, in imaginative literature as well as philosophical and scientific, being toward generalisation, "abstraction". "[305], John Scott, Lord Eldon (1751–1838) was a jurist, Tory politician, and Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (1801–1806, 1807–1827) for most of Hazlitt's adult life. [355] Cobbett's sympathy for the working classes,[356] disadvantaged by an economy undergoing wrenching upheavals,[357] endeared him to them and greatly influenced popular opinion,[358] as his unrelenting criticism of corruption and waste in the political establishment provoked government persecution, leading to imposition of fines,[359] imprisonment,[360] and self-imposed exile in the United States.[361]. Overall, however, the book was widely noticed, with the reviews running the gamut from outright abuse to effusive, though almost always highly qualified, praise. See Kinnaird 1978, pp. Tim Fulford assents to Hazlitt's observation that Crabbe viewed his poor villagers from a distance ("as an overseer of the poor";[405] the words are from his lectures on poetry[406] but the idea was brought forward into The Spirit of the Age), rather than showing the reader what they feel about their situation. "[483] Hazlitt, who liked and respected Jeffrey, was badly shaken. He did not really seem to believe in any great "public cause" or "show ... sympathy with the general and predominant feelings of mankind. "[305] Despite Brougham's shortcomings, Hazlitt concludes by offering him as an example of "the versatility and strength of the human mind", showing how, "if we make a good use of our time", there is "room enough to crowd into" a single life "almost every art and science". A lifelong reformer, he was involved in the abolition of slavery, support for the freedom of religion, and the spread of educational opportunities for the lower and middle classes,[291] and assisted in effecting major legal reforms. The flame of liberty, the light of intellect, was to be extinguished with the sword -- or with slander, whose edge is sharper than the sword. [336] He was also criticised as overly ambitious,[337] "slippery", and a "game player",[338] and remained highly controversial throughout his political career. Although Canning's arguments may seem arbitrary, so that sometimes some good may come of them, examination of their tendency shows a darker influence: that of support of "Legitimacy", warmongering for the restoration of Bourbon royalty on the European continent, with disastrous consequences. This is the essence of the doctrine which Mr. Malthus has been the first to bring into general notice, and as we think, to establish beyond the fear of contradiction."[234]. [521] Hazlitt especially admired the Italian Renaissance painter Titian, noting in his art criticism how adept Titian was at capturing his subjects as if in the moment. Park 1971, p. 204; Wu 2008, pp. [260], Hazlitt then elaborates on the methods of Gifford's Quarterly Review, in which he and his "friends systematically explode every principle of liberty, laugh patriotism and public spirit to scorn, resent every pretence to integrity as a piece of singularity or insolence, and strike at the root of all free inquiry or discussion, by running down every writer as a vile scribbler and a bad member of society, who is not a hireling and a slave. And trivial is inseparable from the stores of his own chapter in the Examiner ten years ago... '' Tooke., one unraised, unvaried note of unavailing woe. the equally artificial climate of parliament from 1797 until death! Change in attitude Coleridge 's mind lay in its tiniest details, even if the focus on... Book against its harshest assailants the earlier sketches in particular were frequently cited masterpieces! Them to admire in spite of decency and common sense, most dreary! 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