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

primary allies. Lamb, who tried to remain uninvolved politically, tolerated his abrasiveness, Notes
and that friendship managed to survive, if only just barely in the face of Hazlitt’s growing
bitterness, short temper, and propensity for hurling invective at friends and foes alike.
• Hazlitt discovered the truth about Tomkins, and from then on his jealousy and suspicions of
Sarah Walker’s real character afforded him little rest. For months, during the preparations
for the divorce and as he tried to earn a living, he alternated between rage and despair, on
the one hand, and the comforting if unrealistic thought that she was really “a good girl” and
would accept him at last. The divorce was finalised on 17 July 1822, and Hazlitt returned to

London to see his beloved—only to find her cold and resistant. They then become involved
in angry altercations of jealousy and recrimination. And it was over, though Hazlitt could
not for some time persuade himself to believe so. His mind nearly snapped. At his emotional
nadir, he contemplated suicide.
• Many of these “Table-Talk” essays display Hazlitt’s interest in genius and artistic creativity.
• In Table-Talk, Hazlitt had found the most congenial format for this thoughts and observations.
• 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.
• Hazlitt had published A Reply to the Essay on Population as early as 1807
• 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
Mackintosh, Brougham, Canning, and Wilberforce.
• Hazlitt was ambivalent about Rome, the farthest point of his journey. His first impression
was one of disappointment. He had expected primarily the monuments of antiquity. But, he
asked, “what has a green-grocer’s stall, a stupid English china warehouse, a putrid trattoria,
a barber’s sign, an old clothes or old picture shop or a Gothic palace ... to do with ancient
Rome?” Further, “the picture galleries at Rome disappointed me quite”.Eventually he found
plenty to admire, but the accumulation of monuments of art in one place was almost too
much for him, and there were also too many distractions. There were the “pride, pomp, and
pageantry” of the Catholic religion, as well as having to cope with the “inconvenience of a
stranger’s residence at Rome....You want some shelter from the insolence and indifference of
the inhabitants....You have to squabble with every one about you to prevent being cheated,
to drive a hard bargain in order to live, to keep your hands and your tongue within strict
bounds, for fear of being stilettoed, or thrown into the Tower of St. Angelo, or remanded
home. You have much to do to avoid the contempt of the inhabitants....You must run the
gauntlet of sarcastic words or looks for a whole street, of laughter.
• Hazlitt justifies his own contrary attitude at length: “When one is found fault with for
nothing, or for doing one’s best, one is apt to give the world their revenge. All the former
part of my life I was treated as a cipher; and since I have got into notice, I have been set upon
as a wild beast. When this is the case, and you can expect as little justice as candour, you
naturally in self-defence take refuge in a sort of misanthropy and cynical contempt for
mankind.” And yet on reflection, Hazlitt felt that his life was not so bad after all.

14.6 Key-Words

1. Solitude : It is a state of seclusion or isolation, i.e., lack of contact with people.
2. Infatuation : It is a state of being completely carried away by unreasoned passion or love.

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