t Carlyle's expression recognizes
the earnestness of his purpose and the bravery with which he maintained
the conflict.

Hazlitt gave himself freely and without reserve to his reader. By his side
Leigh Hunt appears affected, De Quincey theatrical, Lamb--let us say
discreet. Affectation and discretion were equally alien to Hazlitt's
nature, as they concerned either his personal conduct or his literary
exercises. In regard to every impression, every prejudice, every stray
thought that struggled into consciousness, his practice was, to use his
own favorite quotation,

"To pour out all as plain
As downright Shippen or as old Montaigne."

He has drifted far from the tradition of Addison and Steele with which his
contemporaries sought to associate him. There was nothing in him of the
courtier-like grace employed in the good-humored reproof of unimportant
vices, of the indulgent, condescending admonition to the "gentle reader,"
particularly of the fair sex. In Hazlitt's hands the essay was an
instrument for the expression of serious thought and virile passion. He
lacked indeed the temperamental balance of Lamb. His insight into human
nature was intellectual rather than sympathetic. Though as a philosopher
he understood that the web of life is of a mingled yarn, he has given us
none of those rare glimpses of laughter ending in tears or of tears
subsiding in a tender smile which are the sources of Lamb's depth and his
charm. The same thing is true of his humor. He relished heartily its
appearance in others and had a most wholesome laugh; but in himself there
is no real merriment, only an ironic realization of the contrasts of life.
When he writes, the smile which sometimes seeks to overpower the grim
fixity of his features, is frozen before it can emerge to the surface. He
lacks all the ingratiating arts which make a writer beloved. But if one
enjoys a keen student of the intricacies of character, a bold and candid
critic of human imperfections, a stimulating companion full of original
ideas and deep feelings, he will find in Hazlitt an inexhaustible source
of instruction and delight. Hazlitt has long appealed to men of vigorous
character and acute intellect, men like Landor, Froude, Walter Bagehot,
Robert Louis Stevenson, and Ernest Henley, who have either proclaimed his
praise or flattered him with imitation. By the friend who knew him longest
and was better qualified than any other to speak of him, he has be