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Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 18: Hazlitt-On The Importance of the Learned...

Unit 18: Hazlitt - On The Ignorance of The Learned: Critical Notes
Appreciation cum Analysis

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
18.1 Biographical Information
18.2 Major Works
18.3 Critical Reception
18.4 On the Ignorance of the Learned - Critical Appreciation
18.5 Summary
18.6 Key-Words
18.7 Review Questions
18.8 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to:
• Discuss Major Works of Hazlitt
• Examine critically On the Ignorance of the Learned.

Introduction

William Hazlitt was one of the leading prose writers of the Romantic period. Influenced by the
concise social commentary in Joseph Addison’s eighteenth-century magazine, the Spectator, and
by the personal tone of the essays of Michel de Montaigne, Hazlitt was one of the most celebrated
practitioners of the “familiar” essay. Characterized by conversational diction and personal opinion
on topics ranging from English poets to washerwomen, the style of Hazlitt’s critical and
autobiographical writings has greatly influenced methods of modern writing on aesthetics. His
literary criticism, particularly on the Lake poets, has also provided readers with a lens through
which to view the work of his Romantic contemporaries.

18.1 Biographical Information

Hazlitt was born in Wem, Shropshire, and educated by his father, a Unitarian minister whose
radical political convictions influenced the reformist principles that Hazlitt maintained throughout
his life. In 1793 Hazlitt entered Hackney Theological College, a Unitarian seminary, where he
studied philosophy and rhetoric and began writing the treatise on personal identity titled An
Essay on the Principles of Human Action (1805). During this time Hazlitt began to question his
Christian faith and, considering himself unsuited to the ministry, withdrew from the College and
returned to Wem.
In 1798 Hazlitt was introduced to Samuel Taylor Coleridge whose eloquence and intellect inspired
him to develop his own talents for artistic expression. Shortly afterward he followed the example
of his older brother, John, and began to pursue a career as a painter. Hazlitt lived in Paris and
studied the masterpieces exhibited in the Louvre, particularly portraits painted by such Italian

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