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Prose

Notes by prejudice, false refinement, or vulgar opinion. It is easily tainted, but in persons of genuine
tact or finesse it can function as “the prophetic spirit of common sense.”
• In The Examiner of October 31, 1819, he writes, “Don Juan is accused of being an ‘immoral’
work, which we cannot discover.
• In Hazlitt’s terminology passion for truth would involve the distinction between common
sense and vulgar opinion.
• The two words depict a staged response to perception of the fundamental human order.

16.7 Key-Words

1. Douceur : tip
2. Grotius : Hugo Grotius (1583 —1645). ‘a Dutch jurist who laid the
foundations of international law.
3. Puffendorf : Samuel Von Puffendorf (1632 —1694), a German jurist who wrote
on equity and on international law.
4. The statues at large : the complete body of the existing and operating Acts of Parliament,
as they were originally enacted.
5. Premises : Statements of facts from which conclusions can be drawn logically.
6. Tide-waiter : Customs officer
7. Syllogism : argument stated in the strict logical form.
8. Reductio ad absurdum : an argument which shows that absurdity results if we assumes
the opposite of what has to be proved.

16.8 Review Questions

1. Discuss Hazlitt as a literary critic.
2. Explain humour, irony and satire in Hazlitt essays.
3. Critically examine Hazlitt‘s essay On Genius and Common Sense.
Answers: Self-Assessment
1. (i)(a) (ii)(a) (iii)(c)
16.9 Further Readings

1. P.S. Sastri, Hazlitt selected essays, Doaba House, Delhi.
2. Geoffrey Keynes, selected essays of William Hazlitt 1778 to 1830.
3. Peter Quennell, A History of English Literature (London: Ferndale Editions, 1981),
p. 380.
4. Rene Wellek, A History of Modern Criticism: 1750-1950, 4 vols. (New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 1955-65), vol. 3: The Age of Transition, p. 125.
5. Stephen F. Fogle, “Leigh Hunt and the End of Romantic Criticism,” in Some British
Romantics, ed. James V. Logan, John E. Jordan, and Northrop Frye (Columbus:
Ohio StateUniversity Press, 1966), p. 128.
6. James R. Thompson, Leigh Hunt (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977), p. 106.
7. These essays are conveniently reprinted by John R. Nabholtz, ed., William Hazlitt:
Selected Essays (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1970), pp. 18-43.
8. William Hazlitt, The Spirit of the Age: or Contemporary Portraits, introduced by A.
R. Waller (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1910, 1955), p. 343.

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