from the accustomed paths of ancient ordi- involution of style, or an eddy in the thought. nance any man disposed to walk in them by He sometimes complained, though with the the lights from heaven. On the other hand, benignity that always marked his estimate it was a healthful diversion from those of his opponents, that Mr. Malthus's style seductions in which the heart secretly ener- was too richly ornamented for argument; vates and infects the understanding, to invite and certainly, with all its vivacity of illusthe revolutionary speculator to the contem-tration it lacks the transparent simplicity plation of the distant and the refined; by of his own. The most palpable result which the pursuit of impracticable error to brace he ever produced by his writings was the the mind for the achievement of everlasting dark theory in the first edition of the work truth; and on the "heat and flame of the on Population, which was presented as an distemper" of an impassioned democracy to answer to his reasoning on behalf of the "sprinkle cool patience." The idol Political perfectibility of man; and he used to smile Justice, of which he was the slow and at his ultimate triumph, when the writer, laborious architect, if it for a while enchanted, who had only intended a striking paradox, did not long enthral or ever debase its tamed it down to the wisdom of economy, worshippers; "its bones were marrowless, its and adapted it to Poor-law uses; neutralised blood was cold," but there was surely his giant spectres of Vice and Misery by the "speculation in its eyes" which "glared practical intervention of Moral Restraint; withal" into the future. Such high casuistry as it evoked has always an ennobling tendency, even when it dallies with error; the direction of thought in youth is of less consequence than the mode of its exercise; and it is only when the base interests and sensual passions of mortality pander to the understanding that truth may fear for the issue.

and left the optimist, Godwin, still in unclouded possession of the hope of universal peace and happiness, postponed only to that time when passion shall be subjected to reason, and population, no more rising like a resistless tide, between adamantine barriers to submerge the renovated earth, shall obey the commands of wisdom; rise and fall as the means of subsistence expand or contract; and only contribute an impulse to the universal harmony.

The author of this cold and passionless intellectual phantasy looked out upon the world he hoped to inform from recesses of contemplation which the outward inci- The persons of Mr. Godwin's romancesdents of life did not disturb, and which, when stranger still-are the naked creations of closed, left him a common man, appearing to the same intellectual power, marvellously superficial observers rather below than above endowed with galvanic life. Though with the level of ordinary talkers. To his inward happier symmetry, they are as much made gaze the stupendous changes which agitated out of chains and links of reasoning, as the Europe, at the time he wrote, were silent as monster was fashioned by the chemistry a picture. The pleasure of his life was to of the student, in the celebrated novel of think; its business was to write; all else in his gifted daughter. Falkland, and Caleb it was vanity. Regarding his own being Williams, are the mere impersonations of through the same spiritualising medium, he the unbounded love of reputation, and saw no reason why the springs of its exist- irresistible curiosity; these ideas are deence should wear out, and, in the spring-time veloped in each with masterly iteration-to of his speculation, held that man might the two ideas all causes give way; and become immortal on earth by the effort of materials are subjected, often of remarkable the will. His style partook of the quality of coarseness, to the refinement of the concephis intellect and the character of its purposes tion. Hazlitt used to observe of these two --it was pure, simple, colourless. His most characters, that the manner they are played imaginative passages are inspired only by a into each other, was equal to anything of logic quickened into enthusiasm by the the kind in the drama; and there is no doubt anticipation of the approaching discovery of that the opposition, though at the cost of truth-the dawning Eureka of the reasoner; probability, is most powerfully maintained: they are usually composed of "line upon but the effect is partly owing to the absence line and precept upon precept," without an of all extrinsic interest which could interfere

with the main purpose; the beatings of the aid without scruple, considering that their heart become audible, not only from their means were justly the due of one who toiled own intensity, but from the desolation which in thought for their inward life, and had | the author has expanded around them. The little time to provide for his own outward consistency in each is that of an idea, not of existence; and took their excuses, when a character; and if the effect of form and offered, without doubt or offence. The very colour is produced, it is, as in line engraving, next day after had been honoured and by the infinite minuteness and delicacy of delighted by an introduction to him at the single strokes. In like manner, the Lamb's chambers, I was made still more incidents by which the author seeks to proud and happy by his appearance at my exemplify the wrongs inflicted by power on own on such an errand-which my poverty, goodness in civilised society, are utterly not my will, rendered abortive. After some fantastical; nothing can be more minute, pleasant chat on indifferent matters, he carenothing more unreal; the youth being in-lessly observed, that he had a little bill for volved by a web of circumstances woven to 150l. falling due on the morrow, which he immesh him, which the condition of society that the author intends to repudiate, renders impossible; and which, if true, would prove not that the framework of law is tyrannous, but that the will of a single oppressor may elude it. The subject of "St. Leon " is more congenial to the author's power; but it is, in like manner, a logical development of the consequences of a being prolonged on earth through ages; and, as the dismal vista expands, the skeleton speculators crowd in to mock and sadden us!

had forgotten till that morning, and desired the loan of the necessary amount for a few weeks. At first, in eager hope of being able thus to oblige one whom I regarded with admiration akin to awe, I began to consider whether it was possible for me to raise such a sum; but, alas! a moment's reflection sufficed to convince me that the hope was vain, and I was obliged, with much confusion, to assure my distinguished visitor how glad I should have been to serve him, but that I was only just starting as a special pleader, was obliged to write for magazines to help me on, and had not such a sum in the world. "Oh dear," said the philosopher, "I thought you were a young gentleman of fortunedon't mention it-don't mention it; I shall do very well elsewhere:"—and then, in the most gracious manner, reverted to our former topics; and sat in my small room for half an hour, as if to convince me that my want of fortune made no difference in his esteem. A slender tribute to the literature he had loved and served so well, was accorded to him in the old age to which he attained, by the gift of a sinecure in the Exchequer, of about 2007. a-year, connected with the custody of the Records; and the last time I saw him, he was heaving an immense key to unlock the musty treasures of which he was guardian-how unlike those he had unlocked, with finer talisman, for the astonishment and alarm of one generation, and the delight of all others!

Mr. Godwin was thus a man of two beings, which held little discourse with each other-the daring inventor of theories constructed of air-drawn diagrams-and the simple gentleman, who suffered nothing to disturb or excite him, beyond his study. He loved to walk in the crowded streets of London, not like Lamb, enjoying the infinite varieties of many-coloured life around him, but because he felt, amidst the noise, and crowd, and glare, more intensely the imperturbable stillness of his own contemplations. His means of comfortable support were mainly supplied by a shop in Skinner-street, where, under the auspices of" M. J. Godwin & Co.," the prettiest and wisest books for children issued, which old-fashioned parents presented to their children, without suspecting that the graceful lessons of piety and goodness which charmed away the selfishness of infancy, were published, and sometimes revised, and now and then written, by a philosopher whom they would scarcely. JOHN THELWALL, who had once exulted in venture to name! He met the exigencies the appellation of Citizen Thelwall, having which the vicissitudes of business sometimes been associated with Coleridge and Southey caused, with the trusting simplicity which in their days of enthusiastical dreaming, marked his course-he asked his friends for though a more precise and practical reformer

other times saddened by the difficulties of poorly requited literary toil and wholly unrequited patriotism; but he preserved his integrity and his cheerfulness-"a man of hope and forward-looking mind even to the last." Unlike Godwin, whose profound

than either, was introduced by them to Lamb, deposed, he must necessarily die ;-though and was welcomed to his circle, in the true his boldness of speech placed him in jeopardy catholicism of its spirit, although its master even after the acquittals of his simplecared nothing for the Roman virtue which minded associate Hardy, and his enigmatical Thelwall devotedly cherished, and which instructor Tooke, who forsook him, and left Horne Tooke kept in uncertain vibration be- him, when acquitted, to the mercy of the tween a rebellion and a hoax. Lamb justly world. His life, which before this event had esteemed Thelwall as a thoroughly honest been one of self-denial and purity remarkable man ;—not honest merely in reference to the in a young man who had imbibed the immoral relations of life, but to the processes pulses of revolutionary France, partook of of thought; one whose mind, acute, vigorous, considerable vicissitude. At one time, he and direct, perceived only the object imme- was raised by his skill in correcting imdiately before it, and, undisturbed by colla- pediments of speech, and teaching elocution teral circumstances, reflected, with literal as a science, into elegant competence-at fidelity, the impression it received, and maintained it as sturdily against the beauty that might soften it, or the wisdom that might mould it, as against the tyranny that would stifle its expression. "If to be honest as the world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand," to be honest as the mind thoughts slowly struggled into form, and works is to be one man of a million; and seldom found utterance in conversation,→ such a man was Thelwall. Starting with imperfect education from the thraldom of domestic oppression, with slender knowledge, but with fiery zeal, into the dangers of political enterprise, and treading fearlessly on the verge of sedition, he saw nothing before him but powers which he assumed to be despotism and vice, and rushed headlong to crush them. The point of time-just that when the accumulated force of public opinion had obtained a virtual mastery over the accumulated corruptions of ages, but when power, still unconvinced of its danger, presented its boldest front to opposing intellect, or strove to crush it in the cruelty of awaking fear-gave scope for the ardent temperament of an orator almost as poor in scholastic cultivation as in external fortune; but strong in integrity, and rich in burning words.

speech was, in him, all in all, his delight, his profession, his triumph, with little else than passion to inspire or colour it. The flaming orations of his "Tribune," rendered more piquant by the transparent masquerade of ancient history, which, in his youth, "touched monied worldlings with dismay," and infected the poor with dangerous anger, seemed vapid, spiritless, and shallow when addressed through the press to the leisure of the thoughtful. The light which glowed with so formidable a lustre before the evening audience, vanished on closer examination, and proved to be only a harmless phantomvapour which left no traces of destructive energy behind it.

Thelwall, in person small, compact, muscular-with a head denoting indomitable resolution, and features deeply furrowed by the ardent workings of the mind,—was as Thus passionate, Thelwall spoke boldly energetic in all his pursuits and enjoyments and vehemently-at a time when indignation as in political action. He was earnestly dewas thought to be virtue; but there is no voted to the Drama, and enjoyed its greatest reason to believe he ever meditated any representations with the freshness of a boy treason except that accumulated in the archi- who sees a play for the first time. He hailed tectural sophistry of Lord Eldon, by which the kindred energy of Kean with enthuhe proved a person who desired to awe siastic praise; but abjuring the narrowness the Government into a change of policy of his political vision in matters of taste, did to be guilty of compassing the king's death justice to the nobler qualities of Mrs. Siddons -as thus-that the king must resist the and her brothers. In literature and art also, proposed alteration in his measures-that he relaxed the bigotry of his liberal intolerresisting he must be deposed--and that being ance, and expatiated in their wider fields

U

with a taste more catholic. Here Lamb was and that inflexible determination to cherish

it, which naturally predominated in the being of the minister of a small rural congregation, who cherished religious opinions adverse to those of the great body of his countrymen, and waged a spiritual warfare throughout his peaceful course. Thus disciplined, he was introduced to the friendship of youthful poets, in whom the dawn of the French Revolution had enkindled hope, and passion, and opinions tinctured with hope and passion, which he eagerly embraced; and when changes passed over the prospects of mankind, which induced them, in maturer years, to modify the doctrines they had taught, he resented these defections almost as personal wrongs, and, when his pen found scope, and his tongue utterance, wrote and spoke of them with such bitterness as can only spring from the depths of old affection. No writer, however, except Wilson, did such noble justice to the poetry of Wordsworth, when most despised, and to the genius of Coleridge, when most obscured; he cherished a true admiration for each in "the last recesses of the mind," and defended them with dogged resolution against the scorns and slights of the world. Still the superficial difference was, or seemed, too wide to admit of personal intercourse; and I do not think that during the many years which elapsed between my introduction to Lamb and Hazlitt's death, he ever met either of the poets at the rooms of the man they united in loving.

ready with his sympathy, which indeed even the political zeal, that he did not share, was too hearted to repel. Although generally detesting lectures on literature as superficial and vapid substitutes for quiet reading, and recitations as unreal mockeries of the true Drama, he sometimes attended the entertainments, composed of both, which Thelwall, in the palmy days of his prosperity, gave at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, not on politics, which he had then forsaken for elocutionary science, though maintaining the principles of his youth, but partly on elocution, and partly on poetry and acting, into which he infused the fiery enthusiasm of his nature. Sometimes, indeed, his fervour animated his disquisitions on the philosophy of speech with greater warmth than he reserved for more attractive themes; the melted vowels were blended into a rainbow, or dispersed like fleecy clouds; and the theory of language was made interesting by the honesty and vigour of the speaker. Like all men who have been chiefly self-taught, he sometimes presented common-places as original discoveries, with an air which strangers mistook for quackery; but they were unjust; to the speaker these were the product of his own meditation, though familiar to many, and not rarely possessed the charm of originality in their freshness. Lamb at least, felt that it was good, among other companions of richer and more comprehensive intelligence, to have one friend who was undisturbed by misgiving either for Although Mr. Hazlitt was thus staunch in himself or his cause; who enunciated wild his attachment to principles which he reparadox and worn-out common-place with verenced as true, he was by no means rigid equal confidence; and who was ready to in his mode of maintaining and illustrating sacrifice ease, fortune, fame-everything but them; but, on the contrary, frequently speech, and, if it had been possible, even that diminished the immediate effect of his -to the cause of truth or friendship.

WILLIAM HAZLITT was, for many years, one of the brightest and most constant ornaments of Lamb's parties ;-linked to him in the firm bond of intellectual friendshipwhich remained unshaken in spite of some superficial differences, "short and far between," arising from Lamb's insensibility to Hazlitt's political animositics and his adherence to Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, who shared them. Hazlitt in his boyhood had derived from his father that attachment to abstract truth for its own sake,

reasonings by the prodigality and richness of the allusions with which he embossed them. He had as unquenchable a desire for truth as others have for wealth, or power, or fame; he pursued it with sturdy singleness of purpose; and enunciated it without favour or fear. But, besides that love of truth, that sincerity in pursuing it, and that boldness in telling it, he had also a fervent aspiration after the beautiful; a vivid sense of pleasure, and an intense consciousness of his own individual being, which sometimes produced obstacles to the current of speculation, by

which it was broken into dazzling eddies or a fine insight into the nice distinctions of urged into devious windings. Acute, fervid, character, he may copy manners in words vigorous, as his mind was, it wanted the one as he does in colours,--but it may be appregreat central power of Imagination, which hended that his course as a severe reasoner brings all the other faculties into harmonious will be somewhat "troubled with thickaction; multiplies them into each other; coming fancies." And if the successful makes truth visible in the forms of beauty, pursuit of art may thus disturb the process and substitutes intellectual vision for proof. of abstract contemplation, how much more Thus, in him, truth and beauty held divided may an unsatisfied ambition ruffle it; bid empire. In him, the spirit was willing, but the dark threads of thought glitter with the flesh was strong; and, when these con- radiant fancies unrealised, and clothe the tend, it is not difficult to anticipate the result; diagrams of speculation with the fragments "for the power of beauty shall sooner trans- of picture which the mind cherishes the more form honesty from what it is into a bawd, fondly, because the hand refused to realise ? than the person of honesty shall transform What wonder, if, in the mind of an ardent beauty into its likeness." This "sometime youth, thus struggling in vain to give palpable paradox" was vividly exemplified in Hazlitt's existence to the shapes of loveliness which personal history, his conversation, and his haunted him, "the homely beauty of the writings. To the solitudes of the country good old cause" should assume the fasciin which he mused on "fate, free-will, fore- nations not properly its own? knowledge absolute,” a temperament of unusual ardour had given an intense interest, akin to that with which Rousseau has animated and oppressed the details of his early years.

This association of beauty with reason diminished the immediate effect of Mr. Hazlitt's political essays, while it enhanced their permanent value. It was the fashion, in his lifetime, to denounce him as a sour He had not then, nor did he find till long Jacobin; but no description could be more afterwards, power to embody his meditations unjust. Under the influence of some bitter and feelings in words. The consciousness feeling, or some wayward fancy, he occasionof thoughts which he could not hope ade- ally poured out a furious invective against quately to express, increased his natural those whom he regarded as the enemies of reserve, and he turned for relief to the art of liberty, or as apostates from her cause; but, painting, in which he might silently realise in general, the force of his expostulation, or his dreams of beauty, and repay the loveli- his reasoning, was diverted (unconsciously to ness of nature by fixing some of its fleeting himself) by figures and phantasies, by fine aspects in immortal tints. A few old prints and quaint allusions, by quotations from his from the old masters awakened the spirit of favourite authors, introduced with singular emulation within him; the sense of beauty felicity, as respects the direct link of associabecame identified in his mind with that of tion, but tending, by their very beauty, to glory and duration; while the peaceful unnerve the mind of the reader, and substi. labour he enjoyed calmed the tumult in his tute the sense of luxury for clear conviction, veins, and gave steadiness to his pure and or noble anger. In some of his essays, where distant aim. He pursued the art with an the reasoning is most cogent, every other earnestness and patience which he vividly sentence contains some exquisite passage describes in his essay, "On the Pleasure of from Shakspeare, or Fletcher, or WordsPainting;" and to which he frequently re- worth, trailing after it a line of golden assoverted in the happiest moods of his conver-ciations; or some reference to a novel, over sation; and, although in this, his chosen which we have a thousand times forgotten pursuit, he failed, the passionate desire for the wrongs of mankind; till, in the recurring success, and the long struggle to attain it, shocks of pleasurable surprise, the main arguleft deep traces in his mind, heightening his ment is forgotten. When, for example, he keen perception of external things, and compares the position of certain political mingling with all his speculations airy shapes waverers to that of Clarissa Harlowe conand hues which he had vainly striven to fronting the ravisher who would repeat his transfer to canvas. A painter may acquire outrage, with the penknife pointed to her