Editing William Hazlitt (section)

====''The Spirit of the Age''====
{{main|The Spirit of the Age}}
[[File:William Hazlitt portrait.jpg|thumb|William Hazlitt in 1825 (engraving derived from a chalk sketch by [[William Bewick]]).]]

Before Hazlitt and his new bride set off for the continent, he submitted, among the miscellany of essays that year, one to the ''New Monthly'' on "Jeremy Bentham", the first in a series entitled "Spirits of the Age". Several more of the kind followed over the next few months, at least one in ''The Examiner''. Together with some newly written, and one brought in from the "Table-Talk" series, they were collected in book form in 1825 as ''The Spirit of the Age: Or, Contemporary Portraits''.

These sketches of twenty-five men, prominent or otherwise notable as characteristic of the age, came easily to Hazlitt.<ref>As he explains in "On Application to Study", written around this time, his ideas "cost me a great deal twenty years ago". But now he is able to copy out the results of prior study and thought "mechanically". "I do not say they came there mechanically—I transcribe them to paper mechanically".''Works'', vol. 12, p. 62.</ref> In his days as a political reporter he had observed many of them at close range. Others he knew personally, and for years their philosophy or poetry had been the subject of his thoughts and lectures.

There were philosophers, social reformers, poets, politicians, and a few who did not fall neatly into any of these categories. Bentham, Godwin, and Malthus, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Byron were some of the most prominent writers; [[William Wilberforce|Wilberforce]] and [[George Canning|Canning]] were prominent in the political arena; and a few who were hard to classify, such as [[Edward Irving|The Rev. Edward Irving]], the preacher, [[William Gifford]], the satirist and critic, and the recently deceased [[John Horne Tooke|Horne Tooke]], a lawyer, politician, grammarian, and wit.

Many of the sketches presented their subjects as seen in daily life. We witness, for example, Bentham "tak[ing] a turn in his garden" with a guest, espousing his plans for "a code of laws 'for some island in the watery waste'", or playing the organ as a relief from incessant musings on vast schemes to improve the lot of mankind. As Bentham's neighbour for some years, Hazlitt had had good opportunity to observe the reformer and philosopher at first hand.<ref>''Works'', vol. 11, p. 6.</ref>

He had already devoted years to pondering much of the thinking espoused by several of these figures. Thoroughly immersed in the [[Malthusian controversy]], for example, Hazlitt had published ''A Reply to the Essay on Population'' as early as 1807,<ref>''Works'', vol. 1, pp. 177–364.</ref> and the essay on Malthus is a distillation of Hazlitt's earlier criticisms.

Where he finds it applicable, Hazlitt brings his subjects together in pairs, setting off one against the other, although sometimes his complex comparisons bring out unexpected similarities, as well as differences, between temperaments that otherwise appear to be at opposite poles, as in his reflections on Scott and Byron.<ref>Gilmartin, pp. 3–8.</ref> So too he points out that, for all the limitations of Godwin's reasoning, as given in that essay, Malthus comes off worse: "Nothing...could be more illogical...than the whole of Mr. Malthus's reasoning applied as an answer...to Mr. Godwin's book".<ref>''Works'', vol. 11, p. 105.</ref> Most distasteful to Hazlitt was the application of "Mr. Malthus's 'gospel'", greatly influential at the time. Many in positions of power had used Malthus's theory to deny the poor relief in the name of the public good, to prevent their propagating the species beyond the means to support it; while on the rich no restraints whatsoever were imposed.<ref>''Works'', vol. 11, p. 111.</ref>

Yet, softening the asperities of his critique, Hazlitt rounds out his sketch by conceding that "Mr. Malthus's style is correct and elegant; his tone of controversy mild and gentlemanly; and the care with which he has brought his facts and documents together, deserves the highest praise".<ref>''Works'', vol. 11, p. 114.</ref>

His portraits of such Tory politicians as [[John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon|Lord Eldon]] are unrelenting, as might be expected. But elsewhere his characterisations are more balanced, more even-tempered, than similar accounts in past years. Notably, there are portraits of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, which are, to an extent, essences of his former thoughts about these poets—and those thoughts had been profuse. He had earlier directed some of his most vitriolic attacks against them for having replaced the humanistic and revolutionary ideas of their earlier years with staunch support of the Establishment. Now he goes out of his way to qualify his earlier assessments.

In "Mr. Wordsworth", for example, Hazlitt notes that "it has been said of Mr. Wordsworth, that 'he hates conchology, that he hates the Venus of Medicis.'..." (Hazlitt's own words in an article some years back). Indirectly apologising for his earlier tirade, Hazlitt here brings in a list of writers and artists, like Milton and [[Nicolas Poussin|Poussin]], for whom Wordsworth did show appreciation.<ref>''Works'', vol. 11, pp. 93–94, 339.</ref>

Coleridge, whom Hazlitt had once idolised, gets special attention, but, again, with an attempt to moderate earlier criticisms. At an earlier time Hazlitt had dismissed most of Coleridge's prose as "dreary trash".<ref>''Works'', vol. 5, p. 167.</ref> Much of ''The Friend'' was "sophistry".<ref>''Works'', vol. 7, p. 106.</ref> The ''Statesman's Manual'' was not to be read "with any patience".<ref>''Works'', vol. 7, p. 126.</ref> ''A Lay Sermon'' was enough to "make a fool...of any man".<ref>''Works'', vol. 7, p. 129.</ref> For betraying their earlier liberal principles, both Coleridge and Southey were "sworn brothers in the same cause of righteous apostacy".<ref>''Works'', vol. 19, p. 197.</ref>

Now, again, the harshness is softened, and the focus shifts to Coleridge's positive attributes. One of the most learned and brilliant men of the age, Coleridge may not be its greatest writer—but he is its "most impressive talker".<ref>''Works'', vol. 11, p. 30.</ref> Even his "apostacy" is somewhat excused by noting that in recent times, when "Genius stopped the way of Legitimacy...it was to be...crushed",<ref>''Works'', vol. 11, p. 37.</ref> regrettably but understandably leading many former liberals to protect themselves by siding with the powers that be.<ref>"By 1825, Hazlitt was able to regard [Coleridge's abandonment of his earlier views regarding his own poetry] with a greater air of detachment" than in the earlier reviews. Park, p. 234.</ref>

Southey, whose political about-face was more blatant than that of the others, still comes in for a measure of biting criticism: "not truth, but self-opinion is the ruling principle of Mr. Southey's mind".<ref>''Works'', vol. 11, p. 79.</ref> Yet Hazlitt goes out of his way to admire where he can. For example, "Mr. Southey's prose-style can scarcely be too much praised", and "In all the relations and charities of private life, he is correct, exemplary, generous, just".<ref>''Works'', vol. 11, pp. 84–85.</ref>

Hazlitt contrasts Scott and Byron; he skewers his nemesis Gifford; he praises—not without his usual strictures—Jeffrey; and goes on to portray, in one way or another, such notables as [[James Mackintosh|Mackintosh]], [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Brougham]], Canning, and Wilberforce.

His praise of the poet [[Thomas Campbell (poet)|Thomas Campbell]] has been cited as one major instance where Hazlitt's critical judgement proved wrong. Hazlitt can scarcely conceal his enthusiasm for such poems as [[Gertrude of Wyoming]], but neither the poems nor Hazlitt's judgement of them have withstood the test of time.<ref>"The subjects of some [of these essays], like Thomas Campbell, seem hardly to deserve the praise which Hazlitt accords them", wrote Ralph Wardle (p. 406), in 1971.</ref> His friends Hunt and Lamb get briefer coverage, and—Hazlitt was never one to mince words—they come in for some relatively gentle chiding amid the praise. One American author makes an appearance, [[Washington Irving]], under his pen name of Geoffrey Crayon.

In this manner twenty-five character sketches combine to "form a vivid panorama of the age".<ref>Wardle, p. 406.</ref> Through it all, the author reflects on the Spirit of the Age as a whole, as, for example, "The present is an age of talkers, and not of doers; and the reason is, that the world is growing old. We are so far advanced in the Arts and Sciences, that we live in retrospect, and doat on past achievements".<ref>''Works'', vol. 11, p. 28.</ref>

Some critics have thought the essays in ''The Spirit of the Age'' highly uneven in quality and somewhat hastily thrown together, at best "a series of perceptive but disparate and impressionistic sketches of famous contemporaries". It has also been noted, however, that the book is more than a mere portrait gallery. A pattern of ideas ties them together. No thesis is overtly stated, but some thoughts are developed consistently throughout.

Roy Park has noted in particular Hazlitt's critique of excessive abstraction as a major flaw in the period's dominant philosophy and poetry. ("Abstraction", in this case, could be that of religion or mysticism as well as science.) This is the reason, according to Hazlitt, why neither Coleridge, nor Wordsworth, nor Byron could write effective drama. More representative of the finer spirit of the age was poetry that turned inward, focusing on individual perceptions, projections of the poets' sensibilities. The greatest of this type of poetry was Wordsworth's, and that succeeded as far as any contemporary writing could.<ref>Park, pp. 213–15.</ref>

Even if it took a century and a half for many of the book's virtues to be realised, enough was recognised at the time to make the book one of Hazlitt's most successful. Unsurprisingly the Tory ''Blackwood's Magazine'' lamented that the pillory had fallen into disuse and wondered what "adequate and appropriate punishment there is that we can inflict on this rabid caitiff".<ref name="Quoted in Wardle, p. 407">Quoted in Wardle, p. 407.</ref> But the majority of the reviewers were enthusiastic. For example, the ''Eclectic Review'' marvelled at his ability to "hit off a likeness with a few artist-like touches" and ''[[The Gentleman's Magazine]]'', with a few reservations, found his style "deeply impregnated with the spirit of the masters of our language, and strengthened by a rich infusion of golden ore...".<ref name="Quoted in Wardle, p. 407"/>