Imitations of Celebrated Authors; Or, Imaginary Rejected Articles

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 edition. Excerpt: ...unless that degree had amounted to genius, he could not have done certain things that he has done. This leads us to state what is perhaps the most distinguishmg fact connected with Mr. Hazlitt as a prose writer of the nineteenth century. He is the only one of them all whose powers do amount to genius: we mean, those who have addicted themselves to prose exclusively ', for we are not aware that Mr. Hazlitt has ever written a line of poetry, except in his prose. By the bye, we take this to be a singular fact; though one that it would perhaps be not very difficult; to account for. Mr. Hazlitt has displayed as enthusiastic a passion for poetry, and as acute a judgment and delicate a sensibility in detecting its beauties, as any one of his co-temporaries. There is a maxim, too, which is pretty generally admitted, that none but a poet can criticise a poet.' And yet Mr. Hazlitt has never attempted a line of poetry himself. The reason is this: he has never written poetry, because he is able to think it, and feel it, just as well without writing it: for as to his writing poetry, or any thing else, with a direct view to any one's benefit but his own--that is entirely out of the question with him; partly from a selfish indifference to the good of others, which has been superinduced on his natural disposition by the events of his early life; but chiefly, we verily believe, from a shrewd suspicion, that if a great book is a great evil, ' a small one is only so much the less evil. But however this may be, perhaps, no poem was ever yet written that it might be read. Poets write because their faculties require the stimulus of composition, before they can reach that state of excitement in which their being, as poets, consists;--they sit down to write, not...