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Unit 18: Hazlitt-On The Importance of the Learned...

experiences in a more original, conversational style. Often beginning with an aphorism, Hazlitt’s Notes
familiar essays are characterized by informal diction and an emotional tone. This informal style, in
Hazlitt’s words, “promises a greater variety and richness, and perhaps a greater sincerity, than
could be attained by a more precise and scholastic method.” Hazlitt described his essays as
“experimental” rather than “dogmatical,” in that he preferred to use the model of common
conversation to discuss ordinary human experiences rather than to write in what he believed was
the abstract and artificial style of conventional nonfiction prose. Among other things, Hazlitt’s
essays express discomfort with his reputation as irascible (“On Good Nature”), attack those who
question his abilities as a writer (“The Indian Juggler”), extol the benefits of common sense, which,
he felt, comprises “true knowledge” (“On the Ignorance of the Learned”), and otherwise defend
his character.

18.3 Critical Reception

Hazlitt’s critics had a wide range of reactions to the style and content of his familiar writing.
Hazlitt’s political opinions caused bitter antagonism with Coleridge and Wordsworth, as well as
a great majority of his countrymen. Modern critics Harold Bloom and Lionel Trilling, however,
consider Hazlitt to be “the pre-eminent master in English” in the genre of the familiar essay. In
addition, many modern critics note Hazlitt’s unique ability to write on a wide range of literary
subjects with a depth of taste John Keats considered one of “three things superior in the modern
world.”
While modern literary historians generally agree on Hazlitt’s acumen as a critic and essayist,
lively debate has continued since Hazlitt’s death on the merit of Liber Amoris, which—for good or
ill—has become Hazlitt’s most puzzling legacy. An account of Hazlitt’s infatuation with Sarah
Walker, Liber Amoris has been considered alternatively a pathetic attempt at catharsis, a precursor
of Freudian psychoanalytic method, a personal confession, an analysis of the idea of infatuation,
a critique of Romanticism, and, according to Gerald Lahey, “a parable of the entire Romantic
period trying to come to terms with its flawed visionary conception of reality.” Recently the
critical treatment of Liber Amoris has become something of a gauge for determining the relevance
of Hazlitt’s familiar style for contemporary readers: if this, the most personal of Hazlitt’s writings,
has merit beyond its autobiographical curiosity, the familiar essay may remain an effective genre
in the modern period and Hazlitt’s position as a forebearer of modern literary practices will be
secured.

18.4 On the Ignorance of the Learned—Critical Appreciation

This is the eighth essay in in Table Talk and it offers an intimate insight into the mind of Hazlitt.
Himself learned in the old-fashioned way, he can look at the learned in a half-serious and half-
humorous way.
Author and reader have the fewest ideas. There were important Rings in life than reading and
writing. A person with a boo in his band has generally neither power nor inclination to note what
is around him or what is in his own mind. Such a one carries his understanding in his pocket, not
in his mind. He is afraid of arguing systematically on any subject, and he cannot make any
unborrowed observation. He cannot think. In many cases learning is a foil to common sense, a
substitute for true knowledge. Books are employed to keep the readers away from the external
world. The bookworm sees only the shadows of things as they are reflected from the minds of
others. Hence nature puts him out. He cannot bear the impressions of real objects. He is distracted
by their variety and rapidity. Like the sleeping and the dead, he prefers to be left to his own
repose. If you ask him to think for himself, it is like asking the lame one to walk without his
crutches. He borrows ideas and lives on them. When the mental faculties are not exerted or when

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