New-York tribune., 1902-07-06

a. suirit" and Mr. BIrren. recognizing the apt
mss Of the phrase, goes on to describe the
,i,,e rs one who busties you along" He does
ttis no matter what he is writing about, yet
,ter. IS nowhere IN HaZlitt anything TO suggest
.be careless thinking loose rhetoric which
would be inseparabIe from mere hustle" He |
had 100 vigorous q mentality for that, he had |
too sincere an enthusiasm, and too much sheer |
genius. We have said that the question Of his |
being a great writer is, perhaps, open to de-
hate. whoever wished to take the negative in |
,te argument might shrewdly base his case
uron the absence from Hazlitt of a well ordered |
system Of criticism. He was, Mr.. Brren |
meyer allows himself TO forget, a miscellaneous |
writer and for al his love of metaphysical |
ejaculation and philosophical analysis he leaves |
OF the whole, the mixed impression to be ex- |
pected Of such q writer But his taste was in |
stinctiye, and. while some curious judgments |
q his can be cited, it was generally good. AS |
his bographer remarks, what Hazlitt said so |
many years ago about so many literary Ques-
tons most Of Us saying to-day. He had |
brains, he had sympathy and he was candid |
Like his friend. Fawcett. he preferred to ad- |
mire what he really and naturally admired |
not the things imposed upon him by the judg- /
ment of some one else. He liked poetry" says |
M Birreu, as he liked Salisbury Plain and |
Mrs Siddons and Titan and Claude for the |
pleasure it gave him and the good it did him. |
Poetry tckled his ear, excited his fancy, moved |
his heart He was not a regular student, orig |
inal research was no more in his way than in
Johnson's.' The biographer develops the point |
IL passage which we must quote intact:
In both poetry and prose Hazlitt's prefer |
ences were frankly aYowed, and his dislikes |
Outspoken. He never hestated to say as an \
author what he felt as a man. He belonged |
10 no school or cOterie. His knowledge and |
inc sod and ifaA hHyi
his friendship with Lamb, and he had felt the |
stimulus OF Coleridge in poetry well in |
metaphysics and politics, but he remained his |
oWn mana solitary and independent figure. |
He liked Blar's Grave and Warton's Sonnets, |
and he said so. Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia |
bored him to death and he said so. Sir Thomas |
Brownies strained fancifulness and jargOnized
speech teased him, and he said On the
other hand what member of the Anglican
Church has so bathed the name of Jeremy Tay-
lor in the sunshine of eloquent appreciation as
has this Jacobinical son of a Socinian preacher?
One reads Hazlitt. therefore, not for exquis-
itely finished illustrations Of profoundly pom
dered and balanced system Of criticism, but for
the delight of cOmpanionshp for the luxury of
saturating ones self in discourse as personal |
as it is eloquent. Leigh Hunt complained that |
if any insisted upon shaking hands with |
Hazlitt he held out something like the fin of a |
fish, but in his writings there is nothing am |
biguous about his hand. He gives sharp blows, |
in fact, he could more help striking out
from the shoulder than he could help being
happy. 1t in his blood. Vigor, audacity, |
sincerity these the qualities which one finds
In Haz.itt, qualities that for those who really |
know him atone for all that can be said in ad- |
verse criticism Of either the his work |
And if his work. with all its blemishes upon |
its head, has triumphed over detraction and !
neglect, brilliant at its best, tfully strong
al its worst, il must be remembered also that |
Ill tempered and i'll hammered as he knew how |
have heard Us say like him. writes Mary |
Lamb to Sarah Stoddart, who became Hazlitt's !
first wife. He came in good time, for the loss
OF Manning made Charles very dull, and he likes |
Hazltt better than anybody except Manning" |
Even with Lamb, in due course Hazlitt |
euarreled, but they were reconciled, and Lamb |
was with him when he died, having done much
to comfort his last days. That friendship alone
is sufficient testimony TO the sterling qualities
underlying his selfish and unlovely traits. Haz-
lit may have done regrettable things, he may
have been difficult TO get WITH he may
have used with undue ferocity the weapons
o. literary ccntrOversy-wh was ferocious
enough on al sides in his day. But Hazlitt was
man, genuine, hard working and hard hit
ing man, who thought his own thoughts as he
fought his own BATTLES We love him for his
Meas, for the Zest which he communicates to his
Reader, and for his 1nanliness. !