The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1854-04-19
+. Hazlitt.

Domicllo he has not, round whose
hearth his affections might gather rest
he Lad not, for the sole of his burning
foot One chance Of regaining some
peace, or a chance as ho trusted for
time, was torn from him at the moment
of gathering its blossoms. lie had been
divorced from his wife. subsequently he
became deeply fascinated by "a young
woman in no very elevated rank, for she
held some domestic Office Of superinten-
dance in a boarding house kept by her
father, but of interesting person, and en-
dowed with strong intellectual sonsibili.
ties She had encouraged Iazlitt; had
gratifed him by reading his works with
intelligent sympathy and, under what
form of duplicity i, is hard to say, had
partly engaged her faith to Hazlitt as his
future wife, while secretly she was hold
ing a correspondence, too tender to be
misinterprcted, with a gentleman resi-
dent III the same establishment. Sus
picione were put aside for a time; but
they returned, and gathered too thichly
for llazlitt's penetration to cheat itself
any longer Once and forever he resolv-
cd to satisfy himself. On a Sunday,
fatal to him and his farewell hopes OF
domestic happiness, lie had reason to be-
lieye that she whom he now loved to OK
cess had made some appointment out.of-
doors with bis rival It was in London:
and through the crowds Of London. IIaz-
lit followed her steps to the rendezvous
Fancying herself lost in the multitude
that strcamcd through Lincolu's Iun
Fields, the treacherous young woman
met her more favored loved without
alarm, and betrayed, too clearly for any
further deception, the state Of her afTcc-
tons by the tenderness Of her manner.
There went out tho last light that
drew guiding ray over the storm.voxed
course of Hazlitt lie was to much in
earnest, and he had witnessed too much
to be deceived or appoased. 81 whist
led her down the wind.n was his own nc
count of the catastrophe but, in doing
so, he had torn his own heart strings en-
tangled with her Jesse" Neither did
he, as others would have done, seek to
disguise his misfortune. On the contra
ry, he cared not for the ridiculo attached
to such a situation among the unfeeling
the wrench within had been too profound
to leave room for sensibility to the succrs
outside. Il fast friend Of his at that
time, and one who never ceased to be his
apologist, described him to ME as having
become absolutely maniacal during the
first pressure Of his fiiicton. lie went
about proclailning the case and, insisting
on its details to every stranger that
would listen. He even published the
whole story TO the world, in his Modern
Pygmaion." And people generally, who
could not be aware of his feelings, or the
way in which this treachery acted upon
his mind as ratification of all other
treacheries and wrongs that he had suf
fered through life, laughed at him, or ex-
pressed disgust for him, as too coarse
ly indelicatc in making such disclosures.
But there was no indelicacy in such an
act of confidence, growing, as it did, out
of his lacerated heart. 1t was an explo
sion of frenzy. lie threw out his clam
orous anguish to the clouds, and to the
winds, and to air caring not acAo might
listen, aeho might sympathizo, Or acho
might sncer. Pity was no demand Of
his laughter was no wrong; the sole
necessity for him was, to empty his over
burdcncd spirit. After this desolating
experience, the evaporation of Hazlitt's
political temper grew fercor, darker.
steadler. His = Life of Napoleon" was
prosecuted subsequently to this, and per-
haps under this rcmem brance, as a re-
servoir that might receive all the vast
oyeraows of his wrath, much of which
was not merely political, or in spirit of
baceLanalian partnership, but was even
morbidly antisocial. lie hated, with
all his heart, every institution Of man,
and all his pretentions. He loathed his
own relation to the human race.-Dc
Quincy.