486 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



[OCT. 



it with surprise, to think how much pains 

 were thrown away to little purpose yet not 

 altogether in vain, if it taught me to see 

 good in every thing, and to know that there 

 is nothing vulgar in nature, seen with the 

 eyes of science or of true art. Refinement 

 creates beauty everywhere : it is the gross- 

 ness of the spectator that discovers nothing 

 but grossness in the object." 



From some cause with which we are 

 unacquainted, Mr. Hazlitt was induced to 

 relinquish the pencil for the pen : instead 

 of painting pictures, it became his delight 

 to criticise them ; and it must be allowed 

 that in his critical strictures, when his strong 

 and violent prejudices stood not in the way 

 of justice, he was one of the most judici- 

 ous, able, and powerful writers of his time. 

 " His early education," as a cotemporary 

 has observed, " qualified him to judge with 

 technical understanding, and his fine sense 

 of the grand and of the beautiful, enabled 

 him duly to appreciate the merits and defi- 

 ciences of works of art, and to regulate the 

 enthusiasm with which he contemplated 

 their beauties." 



Mr. Hazlitt's first acknowledged literary 

 production was " An Essay on the Princi- 

 ples of Human Action," in which much 

 metaphysical acuteness is said to have been 

 displayed. His " Characters of Shakspeare's 

 Plays," though inferior in depth of obser- 

 vation and soundness of criticism, to the 

 strictures of Schlegel on the productions of 

 our great bard, attracted much notice, and 

 obtained much credit for the writer. Mr. 

 Hazlitt delivered, at the Surrey Institution, 

 a Course of Lectures (afterwards published) 

 on the English Poets. For a time, he was 

 the theatrical critic of the Morning Chroni- 

 cle, and in that paper, when Kean first 

 came before a metropolitan audience, he 

 was one of his most strenuous and cordial 

 supporters. During a long period, he wrote 

 political and critical articles in the Exa- 

 miner ; and he has been an extensive con- 

 tributor, at times, to our own Magazine, 

 and other periodicals. Amongst the 

 most popular of his writings are several 

 volumes collected from periodical works, 

 under the titles of " Table Talk," " The 

 Spirit of the Age," and " The Plain 

 Speaker." His "Round Table," a series 

 of Essays which he wrote in conjunction 

 with Leigh Hunt, for the Examiner, was 

 regarded as a failure. 



Mr. Hazlitt's largest and most elaborate 

 performance is " The Life of Napoleon," 

 which is in four volumes. In this, though 

 tinged with party feeling, the writer dis- 

 plays much deep philosophical remark. 

 Mr. H. was one of the writers in the 

 Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Bri- 

 tannica ; he has also published " Political 

 Essays and Sketches of Public Charac- 

 ters," a " View of the British Stage," 

 an account of " British Galleries of Art," 

 " A Letter to William Gifford, Esq.," 



" Lectures on the English Comic Writers, 

 delivered at the Surrey Institution," " The 

 Literature of the Elizabethan Age," and 

 " The Modern Pygmalion." As far as we 

 can charge our memory with a recollection 

 of this production, it formed the history of 

 one of the author's amours a most extra- 

 ordinary one with his own veritable love- 

 letters, and other documents equally delec- 

 table and rechercMe. . 



Mr. Hazlitt recently published a volume 

 of " Notes on a Journey through France 

 and Italy." At the very moment, as it 

 were, of his death, his last labour issued 

 from the press in an exceedingly pleasant and 

 amusing volume, entitled, "Conversations 

 of James Northcote, Esq., R.A., by Wil- 

 liam Hazlitt." For the matter of the vo- 

 lume, however, as may be inferred from its 

 title, Mr. Northcote seems to be chiefly 

 answerable. Many, if not all of the "Con- 

 versations," had previously appeared, as 

 detached papers, in periodical publications 

 of the day. 



Notwithstanding his inaccuracies of style, 

 and his love of paradox, Hazlitt was a man 

 of genius. In politics he was rather a ra- 

 dical than a whig ; he opposed, with all the 

 bitterness of sarcasm, the existing state of 

 things ; his animosities were unqualified 

 his hatred was rancorous. 



Mr. Hazlitt had, we believe, been twice 

 married. He died in Frith-street, Soho, on 

 the 18th of September. His death was occa- 

 sioned by organic disease of the stomach, of 

 many years' standing. He retained the en- 

 tire possession of his faculties to the latest 

 moment of his life ; and, almost free from 

 bodily pain, he died with perfect calmness 

 of mind. His funeral, at St. Anne's, Soho, 

 on the 25th, was strictly private. The 

 report that he died in a state of destitution 

 is happily incorrect. He had, within two 

 or three months, received considerable sums 

 from a great publishing house, for his 

 " Conversations of James Northcote," and 

 other works ; and also various other sums, 

 of consequence in the aggregate, for his 

 writings in periodical works. For the fu- 

 ture support of his son, the only person 

 dependant on him, it is too probable that 

 he had been unable to make any provision. 



MR. BARRYMORE. 



MR. BARRYMORE, who died at Edin- 

 burgh, on the 14th of July last, at the age 

 of 72, will be remembered by many of our 

 old play-going friends, as a very useful 

 third-rate performer chiefly in tragedy 

 at the theaters of Drury-lane and the Hay- 

 market. His real name, we have heard, 

 was Blewit. His father was a hair-dresser 

 at Taunton, in Somersetshire. Young 

 Blewit or Barrymore was placed in the 

 counting-house of Mr. Ladbroke, in Lon- 

 don ; but, possessing a convivial turn, he 

 at once fell into expensive habits, and im- 

 bibed a taste for theatrical pursuits. For 



