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Unit 14: Hazlitt-On Genius And Common Sense-Introduction

a philosopher, which he had never ceased to consider himself to be; but “The Spirit of Philosophy” Notes
was not published in his lifetime. He also began contributing once again to The Edinburgh Review;
paying better than the other journals, it helped stave off hunger.

After a brief stay on Bouvier Street in 1829, sharing lodgings with his son, Hazlitt moved into a
small apartment at 6 Frith Street, Soho. He continued to turn out articles for The Atlas, The London

Weekly Review, and now The Court Journal. Plagued more frequently by painful bouts of illness, he
began to retreat within himself. Even at this time, however, he turned out a few notable essays,
primarily for The New Monthly Magazine. Turning his suffering to advantage, he described the

experience, with copious observations on the effects of illness and recovery on the mind, in “The
Sick Chamber”. In one of his last respites from pain, reflecting on his personal history, he wrote,
“This is the time for reading. ... A cricket chirps on the hearth, and we are reminded of Christmas
gambols long ago. ... A rose smells doubly sweet ... and we enjoy the idea of a journey and an inn
the more for having been bed-rid. But a book is the secret and sure charm to bring all these implied
associations to a focus. ... If the stage [alluding to his remarks in “The Free-Admission”] shows us
the masks of men and the pageant of the world, books let us into their souls and lay open to us the
secrets of our own. They are the first and last, the most home-felt, the most heart-felt of our
enjoyments”.At this time he was reading the novels of Edward Bulwer in hopes of reviewing them
for The Edinburgh Review.
Such respites from pain did not last. Though a few visitors cheered these days, toward the end he
was frequently too sick to see any of them. By September 1830, Hazlitt was confined to his bed,
with his son in attendance, his pain so acute that his doctor kept him drugged on opium much of
the time. His last few days were spent in delirium, obsessed with some woman, which in later

years gave rise to speculation: was it Sarah Walker? Or was it, as biographer Stanley Jones believes,
more likely to have been a woman he had met more recently at the theatre? Finally, with his son
and a few others in attendance, he died on 18 September. His last words were reported to have
been “Well, I’ve had a happy life”.
William Hazlitt was buried in the churchyard of St Anne’s Church, Soho in London on 23 September
1830, with only his son William, Charles Lamb, P.G. Patmore, and possibly a few other friends in
attendance.

Self Assessment
1. Choose the correct options:
(i) Hazlitt lost his desire to become a unitarian minister and left the college
(a) 1797 (b) 1785 (c) 1795 (d) 1780
(ii) Hazlitt’s first book, An Essay on the Principles of Human Action’ was published in
(a) 1810 (b) 1800 (c) 1805 (d) 1815
(iii) New and Improved Grammar of the English language was published in
(a) 1810 (b) 1805 (c) 1815 (d) 1820
(iv) In 1803, Hazlitt met ........
(a) Bacon (b) Addison
(c) Charles Lamb (d) None of these

14.5 Summary
• Charles Lamb introduced Hazlitt to William Godwin and other important literary figures in
London. In 1805 Joseph Johnson published Hazlitt’s first book, An Essay on the Principles of
Human Action. The following year Hazlitt published Free Thoughts on Public Affairs, an attack
on William Pitt and his government’s foreign policy. Hazlitt opposed England’s war with

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