PAGE 254. to Wordsworth of Sept. 19, 1814. See Letters, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1. 434-5. It is significant of Hazlitt's increasing bitterness (caused mainly, no doubt, by the final downfall of Napoleon) that the passages omitted from The Round Table are for the most part of a highly eulogistic character. ON ROCHEFOUCAULT'S MAXIMS This paper is signed 'W. H.' in The Examiner. "The web of our life, etc. All's Well that Ends Well, Act iv. Sc. 3. De l'Esprit. Helvétius's famous book (1758). Note. Lines written while sailing in a boat at evening. 256. 'Make assurance, etc. Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 1. ON THE PREDOMINANT PRINCIPLES, ETC. This essay, the title of which has been taken from the Index to The Examiner, is No. Ix. of the Round Table series. It was republished in Winterslow under the title of Mind and Motive.' PAGE 259. Friends now fast sworn, etc. Coriolanus, Act Iv. Sc. 4. 260. The servile slave. The Faerie Queene, 11. vii. 33. 261. The toys of desperation.' Hamlet, Act 1. Sc. 4. 262. A fine observation, etc. Aristotle, Metaphysics, A 1. 980 a, 21. THE LOVE OF POWER, ETC. No. x. of the Round Table series, republished in Winterslow along with the former essay as Mind and Motive.' PAGE 265. But for an utmost end, etc. Hobbes, Human Nature, vii. 5, 6 (Works, ed. Molesworth, IV. 33). 266. He courted a statue,' etc. 267. 'Catch glimpses, etc. with us,' etc. Don Quixote, Part I. Book 11. Chap. 13. Cf. Wordsworth's Sonnet, 'The world is too much 'I also was an Arcadian. Cf. vol. vi. (Table Talk), p. 27 and note. 268. Sithence no fairy lights, etc. Sneyd Davies, To the Honourable and Reverend F. C. See ante, note to p. 224. Happy are they, etc. Hazlitt seems to have been fond of this passage. See vol. iv. (Reply to Malthus), p. 104, and vol. 111. (Political Essays), note to p. 266. ESSAY ON MANNERS This essay, No. XVIII. of the Round Table series, was republished in Winterslow. Part of it Hazlitt himself used in the essay On Manner' in The Round Table. See vol. 1. pp. 44-7 and notes. PAGE 269. The Flower and Leaf. This poem is not now regarded as Chaucer's. Cf. vol. v. (Lectures on the English Poets), p. 27 and note. PAGE 271. The painted birds,' etc. Dryden, The Flower and the Leaf, etc., ll. 46-53, 102-152. 272. Lord Chesterfield's character of the Duke of Marlborough, etc. The rest of the essay from this point is in vol. 1. (see pp. 44-7 and notes). KEAN'S BAJAZET, ETC. This theatrical notice is proved to be Hazlitt's by the passage (p. 276) beginning 'Happy age, when the utmost stretch of a morning's study,' etc., which is repeated in the Lecture 'On Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar.' See vol. viii. p. 70. Rowe's Tamerlane was first produced in 1702. PAGE 274. Miss Stephens's reappearance in Polly. Cf. vol. vin. pp. 193-5. 275. Full of sound,' etc. Macbeth, Act v. Sc. 5. 'A load to sink a navy. Henry VIII. Act ш. Sc. 2. Ambition as the hunger of noble minds. See Tamerlane, Act 11. Sc. 2. 276. The Country Girl. Produced originally in 1766, an adaptation by Garrick of The Country Wife of Wycherley. Cf. vol. vin. p. 76. Mrs. Mardyn, Mrs. Alsop, and the actors here referred to are dealt with by Hazlitt in A View of the English Stage. DOCTRINE OF PHILOSOPHICAL NECESSITY This paper, signed 'W,' is clearly Hazlitt's. Cf. the Lecture on the same subject, ante, pp. 48-74. The essay is No. XXVII. of the Round Table series. PAGE 277. For I had learnt,' etc. Cf. Wordsworth, Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, 95-102. 278. Threshold of Jove's throne.' court,' Comus, 1. 279. Praise and blame,' etc. 280. A good favour, etc. Act 111. Sc. 3. Cf. Before the starry threshold of Jove's Cf. ante, p. 56. Loosely quoted from Much Ado About Nothing, 282. Marvell and his leg of mutton. Hazlitt refers to the story of Danby's unsuc cessful attempt to win over Marvell to the court. One version of the story is that in Danby's presence Marvell summoned his servant and said to him, 'Pray, what had I for dinner yesterday?' 'A shoulder of mutton.' "And what do you allow me to-day?' 'The remainder hashed.' Marvell then added to Danby, And to-morrow, my lord, I shall have the sweet blade-bone broiled.' 'Allemagne,' etc. De l'Allemagne, Preface. 'But there is matter,' etc. Wordsworth, Hart-Leap Well, 95-6. PARALLEL PASSAGES IN VARIOUS POETS No. xxviii. of the Round Table series, and signed 'W.' The long passages from Voltaire, etc. have been indicated by the first and last line. PAGE 282. Zaire. 1732. 283. Soft you,' etc. Othello, Act v. Sc. 2. "Vanished [melted] into thin air.' The Tempest, Act iv. Sc. 1. Ducis. Jean François Ducis (1733-1816), who adapted some of Shakespeare's plays for the stage. PAGE ་ 283. As flat, etc. Cf. He has crushed his nose, Susannah says, as flat as a Tristram Shandy, 111. 27. pancake to his face.' 284. Potter. Robert Potter's (1721-1804) translation of Aeschylus appeared in 1777. "When I had gazed,' etc. Poems on the Naming of Places, 11. 51 et seq. We have once already attempted, etc. In three articles in The Examiner. Cf. ante, pp. 572-5, and vol. 1. (The Round Table), pp. 111-125. 'In my former days of bliss,' etc. From The Shepherd's Hunting' (1615). THE DUKE D'ENGHIEN In addition to the essays reprinted in the text from The Examiner of 1815 there are four letters signed 'Peter Pickthank' on the Duke D'Enghien, to which reference should be made. These appeared on September 24, October 8, November 19, and December 10, and were written in reply to a correspondent signing himself'Fair Play.' The controversy arose out of an article (September 3) entitled 'Chateaubriand, The Quack,' which contained a casual reference to the Duke D'Enghien, 'whom Buonaparte is accused of having murdered because he was not willing that he, the said Royal Duke, should assassinate him.' 'Fair Play' seized on this passage and protested (September 10) against the implied defence of the Duke D'Enghien's execution. 'Peter Pickthank' replied (September 24), and the correspondence was kept up till near the end of the year, 'Fair Play' contributing letters on October 1, October 29, and November 26. 'Peter Pickthank's' letters contain many of Hazlitt's stock quotations and personal allusions (to Dr. Stoddart, for example); they embody exactly his political opinions, and altogether the internal evidence of their having been written by him is very strong. Inasmuch, however, as there is not absolute certainty in the matter, and a considerable part of the letters would have been unintelligible without including 'Fair Play's' letters as well, the editors have felt justified in omitting the whole correspondence. An editorial note at the end of 'Peter Pickthank's' third letter (November 19) states that this article has been delayed in order to soften some of the asperities.' PAGE MR. LOCKE A GREAT PLAGIARIST No. xxxi. of the Round Table series, and signed W.H.' 285. "The very head' etc. Othello, Act 1. Sc. 3. A justly exploded [decried] author.' See ante, p. 167 and note. Professor Stewart's very elegant Dissertation. Prefixed to the Supplement to the 4th and 5th editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1816). 286. Fame is no plant, etc. Lycidas 78-82. 287. The greatest and as it were radical distinction,' etc. Bacon, Aphorisms, LV. 'That strain I heard was of a higher mood.' Lycidas, 87. 288. What is most remarkable, etc. This passage on wit will be found in an expanded form in Lectures on the English Comic Writers. See vol. viii. pp. 18-21. Three papers, which we propose to write. These papers do not appear to have been written. 289. The laborious fooleries.' See ante, note to p. 239. 290. "The tenth transmitter, etc. Cf. No tenth transmitter of a foolish face." Savage, The Bastard, 8. "The mind alone is formative.' See ante, p. 176. VOL. XI. 20 577 [THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED] In The Examiner for March 3, 1816 appeared the following note :-'A correspondent who signs himself J.W. thinks we ought to bring proofs of Mr. Locke's want of originality as the founder of a system. We recommend him, if he is curious on this subject, to read the first eighty pages of Hobbes's Leviathan, if the name does not alarm him. After that, if he is not satisfied and repeats his request, perhaps we may attend to it.' On March 31 (Round Table No. xxxiv.) Hazlitt brings forward his proofs in a long paper which consists chiefly of extracts from Locke, Hobbes and other philosophers. The essay begins as follows: 'We have been required to give proof of Mr. Locke's want of originality as a metaphysical reasoner, and of the claims of Hobbes to be considered as the founder of the modern system of the philosophy of the human mind. 'Here then it is. But at the same time we would observe, that we do not think ourselves bound to give this proof to those who have demanded it (somewhat impatiently) at our hands. It was sufficient for us to have stated our opinion on this subject, and to have referred the curious expressly to the sources from which they might satisfy themselves of the truth or hollowness of our assertion. To our readers in general we owe some apology for alluding to such subjects at all. But to the point. We have said that the principles of the modern school of metaphysics are all to be found, pure, entire, connected, and explicitly stated, in the writings of Hobbes: that Mr. Locke borrowed the leading principle of that philosophy from Hobbes, without understanding or without admitting the system in general, concerning which he always seems to entertain two opinions that succeeding writers have followed up Mr. Locke's general principle into its legitimate consequences, and have arrived at exactly the same conclusions as Hobbes, but that being ignorant of the name and writings of Hobbes, they have with one accord and with great injustice attributed the merit of the original discovery of that system to Mr. Locke, as having made the first start, and having gone further in it than any one else before him. "The principles of the modern system, of which Mr. Locke is the reputed and Mr. Hobbes the real founder, are chiefly the following : 1. That all our ideas are derived from external objects, by means of the senses alone, and are merely repetitions of our sensible impressions. 2. That as nothing exists out of the mind but matter and motion, so the mind itself, with all its operations, is nothing but matter and motion. 3. That thoughts are single, or that we can have only one idea at a time; in other words, that there are no complex ideas in the mind. 4. That we have no general or abstract ideas. 5. That the only principle of connection between one idea and another is association, or their previous connection in sense. 6. That reason and understanding are resolvable entirely into the mechanism of language. 7. and 8. That the sense of pleasure and pain is the sole spring of action, and self-interest the source of all our affections. 9. That the mind acts from necessity, and consequently is not a moral or accountable agent. [The manner of stating and reasoning on this last point, viz. the moral and practical consequences of the doctrine of necessity is the only circumstance of importance, in which the modern philosophers differ from Hobbes.] 10. That there is no such thing as genius, or a difference in the natural capacities or dispositions of men, the mind being originally alike passive to all impressions, and becoming whatever it is from circumstances &c., &c. "That these are the most striking positions of the moderns with respect to the human mind, is what every one, familiar with the writers since Locke, as Berkeley, Hartley, Hume, Priestley, Horne Tooke, Beddoes, among ourselves, and Helvetius, Condillac, Mirabaud, Condorcet &c., among the French, will readily allow that most of them are to be found in the Essay on Human Understanding, mixed up in a state of inextricable confusion with common-place and commonsense notions, now advanced, now retracted, the arguments on one side of the question now prevailing through an endless labyrinth of explanation, now those on the other, and now both opinions asserted and denied in the same sentence is what is equally well known to the readers of Locke and his commentators. That the same system came from the mind of Hobbes, not hesitating, stammering, puling, drivelling, ricketty, a sickly half birth, to be brought up by hand, to be nursed and dandled into common life and existence, but just the reverse of all this, full-grown, completely proportioned and articulated, compact, stamped in all its lineaments, with the vigour and decision of the author's mind, is what we have now to shew.' The extracts follow, interspersed with brief comments by Hazlitt, and the essay concludes as follows: 'To what Mr. Hobbes has written on this subject [Liberty and Necessity] nothing has been added nor can be taken away. We agree to every word of it, and the more heartily, because it is the only one of all the points which have been stated on which we do. In speaking of the popular notions of liberty, in his controversy with a foolish Bishop of that day (Bramhall), he says, "In fine, that freedom which men commonly find in books, that which the poets chaunt in the theatres, and the shepherds on the mountains, that which the pastors teach in the churches, and the doctors in the universities, and that which the common people in the markets, and all mankind in the whole world do assent unto, is the same that I assent unto, namely, that a man hath freedom to do if he will; but whether he hath freedom to will, is a question which it seems neither the Bishop nor they ever thought on." Hobbes was as superior to Locke as a writer, as he was as a reasoner. He had great powers both of wit and imagination. In short he was a great man, not because he was a great metaphysician, but he was a great metaphysician because he was a great man. "It has been thought, that the neglect into which Hobbes's metaphysical speculations have fallen was originally owing to the obloquy excited by the irreligious and despotical tendency of his other writings. But in this he has also been unfairly dealt with. Locke borrowed his fundamental ideas of government from him ; and there is not a word directly levelled at religion in any of his works. At least, his aristocratical notions and his want of religion must have, in some measure, balanced one another; and Charles 11. had his picture hanging in his bed-room, though the Bishops wished to have him burnt. The true reason of the fate which this author's writings met with was, that his views of things were too original and comprehensive to be immediately understood, without passing through the hands of several successive generations of commentators and interpreters. Ignorance of another's meaning is a sufficient cause of fear, and fear produces hatred: hence arose the rancour and suspicion of his adversaries, who, to quote some fine lines of Spenser, -Stood all astonished like a sort of steers 'Mongst whom some beast of strange and foreign race 1 See ante, note to p. 48. |