NOTES (continued 2)

Married to immortal verse. L’Allegro, 137.

Thoughts that glow [breathe]. Gray, The Progress of Poesy, III. 3.

But his soul is fair. Thomson, Castle of Indolence, II. 30.

371. Give us reason with his rhyme. See ante, note to p. 362.

His dear Charmettes. Where Rousseau’s happiest years were spent with Madame de Warens.

I care not, Fortune. Thomson’s Castle of Indolence, canto II. 3.

Books, dreams [dreams, books]. Wordsworth, Personal Talk, [will grow].

Note. Ah! voila de la pervenche. Rousseau’s Confessions, part I. book VI.

Reveries of a Solitary Walker. Published in 1777.

373. A witchery in the soft blue sky. Wordsworth’s Peter Bell, part I. 15.

Not by the sufferance of supernal power. Paradise Lost, I. 241.

Squeaked and gibbered in our streets. Hamlet, I. 1.

In his Treatise of Government. Published in 1689–1690.

374. Blackstone and De Lolme. Sir William Blackstone (1723–1780), whose Commentaries on the Laws of England were published in 1765–1769, and John Louis Delolme, a Genevan (1740–1806), whose work on The Constitution of England was published in French in 1771, and in English four years later.

The right divine of kings. Pope, The Dunciad, IV. 188.

Age of chivalry. Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 89).

Mr. Ricardo. David Ricardo (1772–1823), stockbroker and political economist.

With the laurel wreath. Southey was made poet-laureate in 1813.

515374. Carnage as ‘God’s Daughter.’ See vol. I. Characters of Shakespear’s Plays, note to p. 214.

Written the Friend. Coleridge’s Series of Essays (1809–1810), ‘to aid in the formation of fixed principles in politics, morals and religion.’

Like a devilish engine. Paradise Lost, IV. 17.

With looks commercing. Il Penseroso, 39.

375. Doth part the flux. As You Like It, II. 1.

The powers that be. Romans, xiii. 1.

Chop-fallen. Hamlet, V. 1.

For the good of the country. Cf. ‘’Twas for the good of my country that I should be abroad.’ Farquhar, The Beaux’ Stratagem, III. 2.

376. The Bills of Mortality. Weekly burial reports, first supplied by parish clerks in 1592–3.

Mr. Theodore Hook will cry ‘Cockney.’ See vol. VI. Table Talk, note to p. 98.

One-eyed M——. Probably John Murray, who had lost the sight of one eye through an accident.

377. When they censure the age. The Beggar’s Opera, Air XII.

Done the State some service. Othello, V. 2.

378. Like poor Morgan. Roderick Random, chap. xxxiv.

Come betwixt the wind and their nobility. 1 King Henry IV., I. 3.

The Liberal. The quarterly review which lasted for four numbers (1822–3). See vol. IV. The Spirit of the Age, the Essay on Lord Byron, and notes to pp. 258 and 359.

The John Bull. Theodore Hook’s Tory paper.

Mr. Jerdan. William Jerdan (1782–1869), editor of the Tory Sun (1813–17), and then identified for thirty-three years with the Literary Gazette.

The Examiner-Officer. ? a misprint for Examiner Office.

379. Mr. Shelley’s father. Hobhouse’s father, Sir Benjamin, was made a baronet in 1812. The Shelley baronets of Castle Goring, Sussex, were created in 1806.

Illustrations of Childe Harold. Historical Illustrations of the fourth canto of Childe Harold; containing Dissertations on the Ruins of Rome, and an Essay on Italian Literature (1818).

The member for Westminster. Hobhouse was elected in 1820 by a large majority.

The Essay on the Spirit of Monarchy. Hazlitt’s essay was published in the second number of The Liberal.

This gentleman wrote off to Lord Byron. See Byron’s Letters and Journals (ed. Prothero), VI. 167. Cf. vol. IV. The Spirit of the Age, p. 359 and note.

His Vision of Judgment. Byron’s poem was published in No. 1 of The Liberal.

380. I had spoken against Lalla Rookh. Published in 1817. See vol. V. Lectures on English Poets, p. 152.

‘Fudge Family.’ Published in 1818.

Hulling on the flood. Paradise Lost, XI. 840.

Whistle me down the wind. Othello, III. 3.

Proved haggard. Ibid.

Tricksy. Cf. ‘My tricksy spirit.’ The Tempest, V. 1.

To view with scornful. Pope, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 199–200.

381. The account of the ‘Characters of Shakespear’s Plays.’ See vol. I. Bibliographical Note on p. 166.

516381. The Gods ... had made me poetical. As You Like It, III. 3.

Not a true thing. Ibid.

The first thing the Westminster Review did. See ante, note to p. 183. In the very first number (Jan. 1824), the article being written by James Mill, assisted by his son John Stuart Mill. See Sir Leslie Stephen’s The English Utilitarians, vol. III. p. 18.

382. As Mr. Place lost Mr. Hobhouse his first election. Hobhouse unsuccessfully contested Westminster as an advanced Liberal in 1818.

Note. But not till then. For this remark of Porson’s see vol. VII., Lectures on the English Comic Writers, p. 17.

AN ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN ACTION

Hazlitt had made the ‘discovery’ set forth in this essay and had begun to write the essay itself as early as 1798, when he had his memorable meeting with Coleridge. See the essay ‘My First Acquaintance with Poets.’ He did not, however, succeed in making himself understood by the poet, and when the book came to be published, its sale was slow and small, though Mr. W. C. Hazlitt (Memoirs, I. 112) relates that according to a tradition in the family it won the admiration of Mr. Scarlett, afterwards Lord Abinger. Hazlitt himself was proud of the essay, and continually refers to it in his later writings. See especially A Letter to William Gifford, vol. I. pp. 403 et seq., where he explains the nature of the argument. Cf. also the essay on ‘Self-Love’ and the fragments of lectures on English Philosophy first published in Literary Remains. The variations made in the second edition from marginal notes in the author’s copy (see Bibliographical Note) are few and trifling.

395. An airy, notional good. Cf.

‘——fugitive theme

Of my pursuing verse, ideal shade,

Notional good, by fancy only made.’

Prior, Solomon, or the Vanity of the World, I. 15–7.

398. Note. Usher. James Usher’s (1720–1772) An Introduction to the Theory of the Human Mind, was published in 1771.

409. Note. ‘Eros, thou yet behold’st me,’ etc. Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV. Scene 14.

410. Note. Rousseau ... not a Frenchman. Rousseau was born at Geneva, whither his ancestors had removed from Paris as far back as 1529.

415. Note. Berkeley’s Essay towards a New Theory of Vision, published in 1709.

427. Junius has remarked, etc. In his letter to George III. (Dec. 19, 1769).

429. ‘Short-lived pleasure,’ etc. Cf.

‘——O fleeting joys

Of Paradise, dear bought with lasting woes.’

Paradise Lost, X. 741–2.

Note. See Preface to The Lyrical Ballads (2nd edition, 1801), reprinted with variations in the succeeding editions of the poet’s works. (Poetical Works, ed. T. Hutchinson, p. 940.)

517430. To add, etc. This sentence, which seems obscure, should perhaps begin ‘I may add that,’ etc.

The Essay on the Inequality of Mankind. Rousseau’s Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes, 1755.

‘Faithful remembrancer.’ Cowper, On the Receipt of My Mother’s Picture, 11.

‘His high endeavour,’ etc. Cowper, The Task, V. 901.

The System of Nature. Hazlitt wrongly attributes to Jean Baptiste de Mirabaud (1675–1760) the Système de la Nature of Baron d’Holbach (1723–1789), published in 1770.

REMARKS ON THE SYSTEMS OF HARTLEY AND HELVETIUS

434. Hartley. David Hartley (1705–1757), whose Observations on Man, containing his famous principle of the Association of Ideas, appeared in 1749.

Helvetius. Claude Adrien Helvétius (1715–1771), whose famous work De L’Esprit appeared in 1758.

Note. Butler in the Preface to his Sermons. The Fifteen Sermons preached at the Rolls Chapel were published in 1726.

441. As has been explained, etc. An imperfect sentence. Probably Hazlitt wrote, ‘This has been explained,’ etc.

443. Note. Sir Kenelm Digby’s (1603–1665) Observations upon Religio Medici were published in 1643, and were afterwards frequently reprinted in editions of that work.

446. Note. Published in 1780.

447. Mr. Mac-Intosh. Sir James Mackintosh’s lectures on ‘The Law of Nature and Nations’ were delivered at Lincoln’s Inn Hall in 1799.

450. ‘In subduing,’ etc. Othello, Act I. Scene 3.

453. ‘Sentir est penser.’ This well-known aphorism of the Sensational School is attributed to Destutt de Tracy. See ante, note to p. 323.

More drossy and divisible. Dryden, The Hind and the Panther, I. 319.

454. Note. Condillac. Etienne de Condillac (1715–1780), whose Traité des Sensations appeared in 1754.

Note. The book De l’Esprit. See ante, note to p. 434.

Note. ‘Me voici,’ etc. Émile, Liv. IV. (Profession de Foi du Vicaire Savoyard).

457. ‘Discourse of reason.’ Hamlet, Act I. Scene II.

464. ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments.’ Published in 1759.

465. Don Quixote. See Part I., Book III., chaps. 25 and 26.

Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. Constable