In all our crowded streets.’
Cowper, The Task, III. 60–1.
‘——into what pit thou seest
From what highth fallen.’
Paradise Lost, I. 91–2.
‘Alas, from what high hope to what relapse
Unlooked for are we fallen!’
Paradise Regained, II. 30–1.
THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE
[189]. Jeremy Bentham. This essay appeared originally in the New Monthly Magazine (1824, vol. X. p. 68), of which Thomas Campbell was editor from 1820 to 1830. For an account of Bentham’s life and work, see Sir Leslie Stephen’s The English Utilitarians, vol. I. pp. 169–326. The old adage. ‘A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.’ St. Matthew, xiii. 57. In the plains of Chili, etc. Bentham had many disciples among the patriots of South America, and in 1808 thought seriously of going to Mexico. Westminster, where he lives. In Queen Square Place, now Queen Anne’s Gate. Hazlitt himself was from 1812 to 1819 a tenant of Bentham’s in Milton’s old house in Petty France, the garden of which Bentham had added to his house in Queen Square. See frontispiece to vol. III., and ante, p. 190. ‘I know thee,’ etc. ‘I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee: my mistress show’d me thee, and thy dog, and thy bush.’ The Tempest, Act II. Scene 2. Mr. Hobhouse. John Cam Hobhouse (1786–1869) was defeated at Westminster in February 1819, but was returned in the following year. Lord Rolle. John Rolle (1795–1842) was the hero of The Rolliad, and sat for the great maritime county of Devonshire. He was raised to the peerage in 1796. See Wraxall’s Historical and Posthumous Memoirs (ed. Wheatley, IV. 116–119). ‘That waft a thought,’ etc. ‘And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.’ Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, 58. Sir Samuel Romilly. Romilly was returned for Westminster in July 1818. He had already taken an active part in Parliament as a law-reformer. [190]. ‘Lone island,’ etc. ‘Some happier island in the watery waste.’ Pope, Essay on Man, I. 106. Chrestomathic School. The object of this was to apply Lancasterian principles to the education of the middle classes. An association, of which Mackintosh, Brougham, James Mill, and others were trustees, was formed in 1814, and Bentham offered his garden as a site, but the scheme came to nothing. See Sir Leslie Stephen’s The English Utilitarians, vol. II. p. 22. Franklin. Bentham seems to have had a strong personal resemblance to Benjamin Franklin. [191]. Foregone conclusion. Othello, Act III. Scene 3. [192]. Mr. Bentham is not the first writer, etc. The principle of utility had been expressed by (among others) Priestley (Essay on Government, 1768), Hutcheson (Enquiry concerning Moral Good and Evil, 1725), and Beccaria (On Crimes and Punishments, 1764). See The English Utilitarians, vol. I. p. 178. ‘He has not allowed for the wind.’ A familiar expression which Hazlitt may have seen in Ivanhoe, Chap. xiii. ‘Bound volatile Hermes.’ Paradise Lost, III. 602–3. [193]. ‘All appliances,’ etc. Henry IV., Part II., Act III. Scene 1. Posthæc, etc. ‘Forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.’ Virgil, Aeneid, I. 203. [195]. No more than Montaigne, etc. Essays, Booke II., Chap. xii. An Apologie of Raymond Sebond. Florio’s translation, Temple Classics, Vol. II., p. 209. [196]. ‘All men act,’ etc. ‘Men calculate, some with less exactness, indeed, some with more: but all men calculate. I would not say, that even a madman does not calculate.’ Principles of Morals and Legislation, Chap. XIV. § xxviii. [196]. Too knowing by half. ‘That’s too civil by half.’ Sheridan, The Rivals, Act III. Scene 4. [197]. A Panopticon. ‘A mill for grinding rogues honest, and idle men industrious’ (Bentham, Works, X. 226). Bentham published an account of the scheme in 1791 under the title of ‘The Panopticon, or the Inspection House,’ and spent a great deal of money in connection with it. Ultimately a committee reported against the scheme and proceeded to found the Millbank Penitentiary, which was opened in 1816. See The English Utilitarians, I. 193–206. [197]. ‘Dip it in the ocean,’ etc. ‘But I fear, friend, said I, this buckle won’t stand ... you may immerse it, replied he, into the ocean, and it will stand.’ A Sentimental Journey, The Wig, Paris. [198]. Mr. Owen. Cf. Political Essays (vol. III. pp. 121–7) and Table-Talk (‘On People with one Idea’). His address to the higher and middle classes. The second of Coleridge’s Lay Sermons (1817) was ‘addressed to the higher and middle classes.’ Hunter’s captivity among the North American Indians. J. Dunn Hunter’s Memoirs of a Captivity amongst the Indians of North America, from Childhood to the Age of Nineteen, etc., 1824. [199]. In nook monastic. ‘To forswear the full stream of the world and to live in a nook merely monastic.’ As You Like It, Act III. Scene 2. ‘Men of Ind.’ The Tempest, Act II. Scene 2. Mr. Speaker Abbott. Charles Abbot (1757–1829) was Speaker from 1802 to 1817, when he retired and became Lord Colchester. His mother was the second wife of Bentham’s father. His unique Diary and Correspondence, extending from 1795 to 1829, were published in 3 vols. in 1861. He was educated at Eton. Bentham was a Westminster boy. [200]. At the University. Bentham went to Queen’s College, Oxford, in 1760, and took his M.A. degree in 1766. Church-of-Englandism. Church of Englandism and its Catechism examined, published in 1818. ‘To be honest,’ etc. Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2. ‘Looked enough abroad,’ etc. ‘The corrupter sort of politicians, who are not by learning established in a love of duty, nor ever look abroad into universality.’ Advancement of Learning, Book I. Mr. Godwin. For Godwin see C. Kegan Paul’s William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries, 2 vols. 1876. [201]. Political Justice. Godwin’s Enquiry concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness was published in 1793, Things as they are; or the Adventures of Caleb Williams in 1794. As Goldsmith used to say. ‘Whenever I write any thing, the public make a point to know nothing about it.’ Boswell, Life of Johnson (ed. G. B. Hill), III. 252. Sedet, in eternumque, etc.