2 JULY 1836, Page 15

do a great deal of business besides. I can say

nu more about the boys hoe :

would have liven reformed long ago: but as this is not to be hoped fire at pre- four yards at a limning jump, am! two at a standiog jump. I intend to II v you sent, the h.,t was is to slide through it as contentedly and innocently as aos at this when you come down. We are not all w ell, fur or Peggy f has a if there woe not so many knaves ;mil fools as we tied, the wise and honest The following passages were written when two years older. would not be those rare and shining characters that they are allowed to be ; and They were addressed to his lather, an Unitarian minister : this (as a matter of phili s ,phy) that if the world be really incorrigible in this may in part account for their Ecrious vein, but they lead oddly' respect, it is a reflection to make one sa I, not angry. We may laugh or from the pen Of II azLirr. wolp at the madness of inand.ind : we li we no light to vilify them, for our will be advantageous to me will give you pleasure. I la ppy, indeed unspeakably blots at the door of others. Ho not, however, mistake what I have here happy, are those people who, when at the point i f ikatit, are ;file to say, with said. 1 would not have you, when you glow up, adopt the low and sordid a b at i,fartion which none but themselves can have any idea of, I have dune fashiati of palliating existing abuse., or of potting the best face upon the with this world, I shall now Lave no mere temptations to sal m:gle with, and, worst things; I only mean that indiscriminate, unqualified satire can do praioe be to God, 1 have overcome them : now no more soroov, now no more little good, and that those who indulge in the roost revolting speculations On grief, hut happiness for evermore! Ilut how unspeakably miserable is that human nature, do not themselves sways set the fairest examples, or strive man who, when his pleasures are going to end, when his lamp begins to grow to prevent its lower degradation. They seem rather witting to reduce it to their dim, is compelled to say, Oh that 1 had done my duty to God and man ; oh theoretical standard. For the rest, the very outcry that is made (if sincere) that I had been wise, and spent that time which was kindly given me by Piovi- show: that things cannot he finite so bad as they are represented. The abstract dente for a purpose quite contrary to that which I emph.yed it to, as I should hatred anal scorn of vice implies the capacity for virtue I the impatience ex- have 11.,11e; but it is now gone; I cannot reeal time, our can I undo all Inv pressed at the most striking instances of dehirmity, proves the innate idea and wicked actions. I cannot seek that mercy which I have so often despised. I love of beauty is the human mind.

have no hope remaining. I must do as well as I can ; but who can endure

everlasting fire? Thus does the wicked man breathe his last ; and, without Upon the whole, these Remains of WILLIAM Ilazt.nr will being able to rely upon . his good, with his last breath, in the anguish of his operate favourably upon his memory, and tend to remove much of soul, says have mercy upon me a sinner, 0 God! " the ill odour which in life was attached to his name. Taken alto- This,from the same letter, is a happy touch, without relation to gel her, not only did the good very greatly predominate in his con- the writer's age. duct, but it may be said with truth that the evil was merely ex- ., Saturday afternoon I and George, with Mks Avis, went to a Mrs. Bart- crescent. Without fortune, he maintained his independence and • My uncle John had recently established himself in Loudon. in Great Russell respectability by the strenuous exertions of his brain. Thrown street, as a portrait-painter.; Jo shell profession Ile very capidly altailled eousideraide "upon evil tongues and evil days "—always exposed to obloquy, and eminence and an extensive practice. t Ills attached awl most excellent sister, wises with .roy zmwdmcaher and my uncle John, still survive. able principles, when beset on one side by intellectual persecution,

ton's, who appeared to he an unhospitable English prim 'lady,' if such she may

SPEC'EATOR'S LIBRARY. In called. She askid us, as if she were afraid we should accept it. if we would

stay to tea. And at the other English persons, for I am sure she belongs to no Booms PITY, 0 her country than to England, I got such a suifeit of their ceremonial unsovi-

Lo,oary o,onsho; of the late William Hazlitt. With a Notice of Ids Life. by his ality, that I could not help wishing myself in America. 1 had rather people

• :01,: and Thoughts ou hist:cubes awl Writings. by E. L. nukes, rsq., M.P.. tool trould tell one to go out of the house than ask one to stay., and at the same time Mr. Sergeant Talfour,L M.P. It, 2 vols. Saunders and Utley. bc trembling all over for fear one should take a slice of meat m a dish of tin FieTtoN, with them. Such as these require an llorara, or a Shakspeare to describe them."

nom Ot i;:i nal Designs. In 2 coda. Jolyntan and en. There are more passages of a similar kind, but we must pass a ati. Its Frances Trollop% A Ahoy or '• Pali., and the Parisians in Is:35," on. The next section contains some Thoughts upon the Genius - thaLesns Manuerb of the Ameticalts,"&e. With irteen Engravings. III :: soh,. and Intellectual Character if II A %L. I TT, by Mr. E DIVA I: D ButAvsa, and Alr. TahFounn the distinguished barrister. The paper of the author of Pelham is eloquent, but suite' (trial ; Mr. But, naztArat's LIFE AND LITERARY REMAINS. WEIL appearing desirous to make up by good composition and THE contents of these volumes c insist of three distinct sections : undiscriminating applause for want of matter. Mr. TALFOURDS the first contains a life of the author, the second a view of his contribution is of a higher order; distinguishing, true, and pro- literary character, and the third is made up of such of his writings found. The writer seems to have been personally acquainted with as have either not yet been published or not in a collected shape. II AZLITT; it is evident he is deep!y read in his works ; and al- Compared with the ephemeral productions or the mechanical though long companionship may have slightly biassed him in manufactures (.1 literature which daily conic forth, this book has favour of his author, it has enabad him to appreciate the quali- very considerable value and interest ; although, with a few small ties and peculiarities of II a zu it r's genius, which he analyzes exceptiens in point of bulk, the old matter is superior to the new. with the acumen of a critic, whilst he animates his criticism with The biographical sketch of the author is by his son. It is short the spirit of a poet. In short, Mr. TaLrottan writes to endea- and slight ; not telling much more perhaps than was already known vour to convey a true impression of the qualities of his subject, to ma tiv, bat britiging into a focus the leading events of Iitzurr's and not " to show what fine things one man of genius can say of life, and tracing seriatim his endeavours as a painter, till he aban- another."

dolled the pencil in despair, and then pursuing his career as an The third part of the volumes, containing the Literary Remains, author, front the publication of Ilk Prins pies of Haman Anion is by far the largest. The old matter consists of the elaborate in ISoa, until his death in 1830, in his fifty-third year. What paper on the Fine Arts from the new edition of the lioryelopedia has been done, however, is done well : the views are fair, and in Britanniea, and of various articles published in periodicals; some the main just,although of course with a leaning to the hero: and of which it was scarcely worth while to have resuscitated, others, the writer has avoided any thing like swaggering or undue as- like the delightful paper called " NIy First Acquaintance with

sumption—he is confident and quiet. Poets," cannot be printed too often. The new papers consist of se-

Much of character and even of interest is imparted to the veral youthful productions, and of some essays, forming part of a sketch by the insertion of some of-II AZLITT'S early letters, in series of Lectures delivered by I I AZ LITT ill 1813, and which had which the prominent characteristics of his after years are dis- narrowly escaped entire destruction, through the carelessness of tinctly visible, although modified by the religious training to the people to whom they had been intrusted. Their nature appears which he had beet subjected in his father's house. " The boy to have been metaphysical : their leading object is to deprive is father of the man : " at twelve years old young IlazLITT began LOCI E of the credit of having first traced thought to sensation, to philosophize and to speculate, with almost as much of shrewd- by showing that it originated with 110151IES; and the principal Less and penetration as he afterwards displayed, ablumgh the interest is derived from the descriptive notices of Honass's want of knowledge limited his views and might, vitiate his con- writings, or rather front the quotations brought forward to support elusions. Even at ten years of age he dealt out axioms. See, the views. From their subject these essays are of necessity dry in the midst of a childish narrative, how he lays down laws of to the generality, The paper which is roost likely to become per- morality, throws out a sarcasm in the shape of an insinuation, manently popular, and which indeed is the gem of the volumes, jumps to a conclusion as to the cause of the quarrelsome dispo- is that "On the Conduct of Life." It was addressed to a school.

" Wcm, Saturday Morning. March —, 1788. been intended for publication ; and, except in the closing passages,

Hoare

cam ice, 111,11'11V,S, or ill-nature. You should be more your own master.

own sakes or theirs. Misanthropy is not the disgust of the milal at human

" I know that every minute Ora I our employe) in doing any thing which Hahne, but with itself; or it is laying its own exaggerated vices and foul

and tempted to apostacy on the other by the prospect of reward, and by the example of men whose genius he admired, and for whom he entertained a personal esteem. But although the faults of

his character were of a trivial, they were of a telling kind. As an author, he was egotistical and paradoxical, frequently to a disagree- able extent. II azairr not only thrust himself obtrusively upon the reader, but shocked his prejudices, and occasionally- ran counter to truth and reason; whilst all these offensive things were done in a dogmatical devil-me-rare manner, readily enough perceived by minds which could neither feel his occasional touches of tender- ness, nor appreciate his penetrating perception in criticism and life, nor comprehend his shrewdness in morals and metaphysics. These

faults—grievous stumblingbloeks to popularity—were heightened,

exuggera ed, and placed in full tel by political hatred, unscru- pulous in its modes of warfare, and stimulated perhaps by the ran cour which renegades ever enteriain towards the faithful. But HAZLITT suffered also from his friends. Ile was the member, if not the creature of a coterie, which deviated almost as widely front truth in their injudicious praise as his opponents in their savage censure; and Haztarr became in a measure the victim of the recoil. Judging from the volumes bet ere us, his personal failings appear to have been few, and all the idle stories circulated about the coarse sensuality of his habits, falsehoods; but, like those at- tached to his character as an author, they were of an unfortunate kind, especially when contrasted with the intelleetual pretensions of the Mali. " It is worse than a crime—it's a blunder :" so the failings of Hamm partook of a degree of silliness which injured him more than platonic attachments to maid-servants, or a condescending association with low persons, v here he looked, we have no doubt, like Reason with Folly's cap and bells on his head, in MOORE'S charming little ballad, and became quite as distasteful to those whom he wished to please.