The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spirit of the Age, by William Hazlitt

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Title: The Spirit of the Age
Contemporary Portraits

Author: William Hazlitt

Release Date: February 12, 2004 [EBook #11068]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE

SPIRIT OF THE AGE:

OR

CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS.

"To know another well were to know one's self."

CONTENTS.

JEREMY BENTHAM

WILLIAM GODWIN

MR. COLERIDGE

REV. MR. IRVING

THE LATE MR. HORNE TOOKE

SIR WALTER SCOTT

LORD BYRON

MR. CAMPBELL--MR. CRABBE

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH

MR. WORDSWORTH

MR. MALTHUS

MR. GIFFORD

MR. JEFFREY

MR. BROUGHAM--SIR F. BURDETT

LORD ELDON--MR. WILBERFORCE

MR. SOUTHEY

MR. T. MOORE--MR. LEIGH HUNT

ELIA--GEOFFREY CRAYON

THE

SPIRIT OF THE AGE.

* * * * *

JEREMY BENTHAM.

Mr. Bentham is one of those persons who verify the old adage, that "A
prophet has no honour, except out of his own country." His reputation
lies at the circumference; and the lights of his understanding are
reflected, with increasing lustre, on the other side of the globe. His
name is little known in England, better in Europe, best of all in the
plains of Chili and the mines of Mexico. He has offered constitutions
for the New World, and legislated for future times. The people of
Westminster, where he lives, hardly know of such a person; but the
Siberian savage has received cold comfort from his lunar aspect, and may
say to him with Caliban--"I know thee, and thy dog and thy bush!" The
tawny Indian may hold out the hand of fellowship to him across the GREAT
PACIFIC. We believe that the Empress Catherine corresponded with him;
and we know that the Emperor Alexander called upon him, and presented
him with his miniature in a gold snuff-box, which the philosopher, to
his eternal honour, returned. Mr. Hobhouse is a greater man at the
hustings, Lord Rolle at Plymouth Dock; but Mr. Bentham would carry it
hollow, on the score