But he circulated his thoughts on many other
subjects, whereon he ought not to have excited offence or opposition. He
wrote (and he wrote well) upon many things lying far beyond the limits of
politics. To use his own words, "I have at least glanced over a number of
subjects--painting, poetry, prose, plays, politics, parliamentary
speakers, metaphysical lore, books, men, and things." This list, extensive
as it is, does not specify very precisely all the subjects on which he
wrote. His thoughts range over the literature of Elizabeth and James's
times, and of the time of Charles II.; over a large portion of modern
literature; over the distinguishing character of men, their peculiarities
of mind and manners; over the wonders of poetry, the subtleties of
metaphysics, and the luminous regions of art. In painting, his criticisms
(it is prettily said by Leigh Hunt) cast a light upon the subject like the
glory reflected "from a painted window." I myself have, in my library,
eighteen volumes of Hazlitt's works, and I do not possess all that he
published. Besides being an original thinker, Hazlitt excelled in
conversation. He was, moreover, a very temperate liver: yet his enemies
proclaimed to the world that he was wanting even in sobriety.
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