NOTES

FUGITIVE WRITINGS

This essay was first published along with the second edition (1836) ofAn Essay on the Principles of Human Action. See Bibliographical Note, vol.VII.p. 384. The source of the essay does not appear to be known, but it very likely formed the substance of one of the Lectures which Hazlitt delivered at the Russell Institution. Seeante, pp. 25,et seq.and notes. The title of one of these Lectures (III.) was ‘On Berkeley’s Principles of Human Knowledge, and on the Nature of Abstraction.’ It has not been thought necessary to give references to all the numerous passages quoted from Locke and other philosophers discussed by Hazlitt. In many cases he himself gives a sufficient reference in the text.

This and the four succeeding papers were first published inLiterary Remains, where the author’s son says of them (vol.I.p. 115): ‘The following Essays form part of a series of Lectures delivered with very great effect by my father at the Russell Institution, in 1813. I found them with other papers in an old hamper which many years ago he stuffed confusedly full ofMSS.and odd volumes of books, and left in thecareof some lodging-house people, by whom it was thrown into a cellar, so damp that even the covers of some of the books were fast mouldering when I first looked over the collection. The injury to theMSS.may be imagined. Some of the Lectures, indeed, to my deep regret, are altogether missing, burnt, probably, by the ignorant people of the house; and I have had the greatest difficulty in preparing those which remain for the press. They are, however, most valuable.’ The course, consisting of ten Lectures, was delivered in 1812, not 1813. The syllabus will be found in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’sMemoirs of William Hazlitt, 1. 192 et seq. The first lecture was ‘On the Writings of Hobbes, showing that he was the father of the modern system of philosophy.’

LecturesVII.andVIII.were ‘On the Writers on Liberty and Necessity, and on Materialism.’

This appears to have been LectureII.of the course. Cf. the essay ‘Mr. Locke a Great Plagiarist,’post, p. 284.

LectureIX.was ‘On the Theory of Language; as treated by Horne Tooke, by the author ofHermes, and Lord Monboddo.’ Cf. vol.IV.(The Spirit of the Age), p. 231, and notes.

LectureIV.of the series. Cf. the essay on ‘Self-Love and Benevolence (A Dialogue)’ printed in vol.XII.pp. 95et seq., andAn Essay on the Principles of Human Action(vol.VII.pp. 383,et seq.), from which a great part of the present Lecture is taken.

‘Love, free as air, at sight of human ties,Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.’Pope,Eloisa to Abelard, 75–6.

‘Love, free as air, at sight of human ties,

Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.’

Pope,Eloisa to Abelard, 75–6.

‘Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.’Pope,An Essay on Man, l. 218.

‘Feels at each thread, and lives along the line.’

Pope,An Essay on Man, l. 218.

Madame de Staël’sDe l’Allemagne, published in London in 1813, had been reviewed, possibly by Hazlitt, inThe Morning Chroniclefor Nov. 13, 1813, and the four papers here reprinted and signed ‘An English Metaphysician’ are ostensibly a continuation of that review, though they contain very little about German philosophy and nothing at all about German literature. They are, in fact, merely fragments in letter form of the course of lectures which Hazlitt had recently delivered at the Russell Institution. Seeante, pp. 25et seq.and notes. Hazlitt was a regular contributor toThe Morning Chronicleduring 1813 and 1814. Some of his contributions on politics, the stage, and the fine arts will be found in vols.III.,VIII.andIX.of the present edition; and he gives an account of his relations with James Perry, the editor, in the essay ‘On Patronage and Puffing’ (see vol.VI.p. 289). None of theChroniclepapers included in the present volume have been republished before.

At the end of this letter it was announced that ‘Another Letter on thePrinciples of Human Actionwill conclude this series.’ The promised Letter, however, does not seem to have been published.

Hazlitt used a portion of this notice in the essay on ‘Fine Arts’ which he afterwards (1824) contributed toThe Encyclopædia Britannica. See vol.IX., pp. 406–7. The British Institution was founded in 1805 at 52 Pall Mall and continued till 1866. The winter exhibition was of the works of living artists. A second notice, inThe Morning Chroniclefor Feb. 10, is probably by Hazlitt. It contains very brief comments on the less notable pictures, and is not reprinted here.

Nearly the whole of this paper was incorporated into the essay onRichard III.inCharacters of Shakespeare’s Plays. See vol.I.pp. 300–303 and notes.

Part of this article was incorporated in theEncyclopædia Britannicaarticle on ‘Fine Arts’ (see vol.IX.pp. 392–394), and a further part was included in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s edition of the same essay inEssays on the Fine Arts(1873). Many of Wilson’s landscapes were exhibited at the Winter Exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1903. In this and in the later notices of exhibitions the catalogue numbers have been omitted, and in a few cases it has been necessary to substitute a semicolon for a comma, in order to distinguish between different pictures.

This article, like the last, was used for theEncyclopædiaessay (vol.IX.pp. 395–6) and was partly reproduced in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s edition ofEssays on the Fine Arts, 1873 (notes to p. 244).

This theatrical notice is clearly Hazlitt’s, though he omitted it fromA View of the English Stage. Cf. vol.I.(Characters of Shakespeare’s Plays), p. 237, where the same words are used, with trifling variations, in criticism of Kemble’sHamlet. Cf. also vol.VIII.p. 376.

Hazlitt contributed toThe Championsix papers on the ‘Character of Sir Joshua Reynolds.’ The first two of these (Oct. 30 and Nov. 6. 1814) were used in the author’sEncyclopædia Britannicaessay on ‘Fine Arts.’ See vol.IX.of the present edition, pp. 377et seq., and the notes, where the omitted portions of the two articles are supplied. The last four (viz. the present essay and the three succeeding ones) are here reprinted for the first time. Hazlitt afterwards dealt with the same subject in the two essays entitled ‘On Certain Inconsistencies in Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses’ (vol.VI.Table Talk, pp. 122–145).

‘——And he would gaze till it becameFar lovelier, and his heart could not sustainThe beauty, still more beauteous.’Wordsworth,Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree, 35–37.

‘——And he would gaze till it became

Far lovelier, and his heart could not sustain

The beauty, still more beauteous.’

Wordsworth,Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree, 35–37.

This article is signed ‘W. H.’

BRITISH INSTITUTION

These three notices of the Exhibition at the British Institution are signed ‘W. H.’

This essay is signed ‘W. H.’

Under this heading Hazlitt contributed toThe Examinerthree papers which he afterwards partly republished with omissions and variations in two essays inThe Round Table. See vol.I.pp. 111–125. These omissions and variations are given below.

“——The meanest flower that blows can giveThoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”’[72]

“——The meanest flower that blows can give

Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”’[72]

This paper is signed ‘W. H.’ inThe Examiner.

This essay, the title of which has been taken from the Index toThe Examiner, is No.IX.of theRound Tableseries. It was republished inWinterslowunder the title of ‘Mind and Motive.’

No.XIII.of theRound Tableseries, republished inWinterslowalong with the former essay as ‘Mind and Motive.’

This essay, No.XVIII.of theRound Tableseries, was republished inWinterslow. Part of it Hazlitt himself used in the essay ‘On Manner’ inThe Round Table. See vol.I.pp. 44–7 and notes.

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