He writes still more severely (December, 1818-January, 1819),
"If I were to follow my own inclinations, I should never meet any one of that set again, not even Hunt, who is certainly a pleasant fellow in the main when you are with him; but in reality he is vain, egotistical, and disgusting in matters of taste and morals. Hunt does one harm by making fine things petty, and beautiful things hateful. Through him I am indifferent to Mozart. I care not for white Busts—and many a glorious thing when associated with him becomes a nothing."
Haydon considered that Hunt was the "great unhinger" of Keats's best dispositions (
Works of Keats
, ed. H. B. Forman, vol. iv. p. 359); and Severn attributes Keats's temporary "mawkishness" to Hunt's society (
ibid
., p. 376).
Nathaniel Hawthorne (
Our Old Home
, p. 229, ed. 1884) says of Hunt, and means it as high praise, that