1. ‘Manners make the man’ (March 29, 1829). 2. ‘Mr. Jeffrey’s Resignation of the Editorship of the Edinburgh Review’ (June 21, 1829). 3. ‘Autographs’ (June 28, 1829). 4. ‘A Hint upon Education’ (Aug. 9, 1829). 5. ‘A Newspaper Sketch’ (Oct. 18, 1829).
CONTENTS[[1]]
| CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE | |
| PAGE | |
|---|---|
| The Fight | [1] |
| Merry England | [15] |
| Of Persons One would Wish to have Seen | [26] |
| On the Conversation of Lords | [38] |
| On a Sun-dial | [51] |
| Why the Heroes of Romance are insipid | [59] |
| The Shyness of Scholars | [68] |
| The Main-Chance | [78] |
| Self-Love and Benevolence | [95] |
| The Same Subject continued | [104] |
| *The Free Admission | [119] |
| The Sick Chamber | [125] |
| Footmen | [131] |
| CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE | |
| On the Want of Money | [136] |
| On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth | [150] |
| On Reading New Books | [161] |
| On Disagreeable People | [173] |
| On Means and Ends | [184] |
| On Personal Identity | [198] |
| *Aphorisms on Man | [209] |
| A Chapter on Editors | [230] |
| The Letter-Bell | [235] |
| CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LIBERAL | |
| On the Spirit of Monarchy | [241] |
| *On the Scotch Character | [253] |
| My First Acquaintance with Poets | [259] |
| *Pulpit Oratory | [275] |
| *Arguing in a Circle | [285] |
| CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LONDON WEEKLY REVIEW | |
| *Queries and Answers | [296] |
| On Knowledge of the World | [297] |
| The Same Subject continued | [301] |
| The Same Subject continued | [306] |
| On Public Opinion | [311] |
| On the Causes of Popular Opinion | [316] |
| A Farewell to Essay-writing | [321] |
| *Byron and Wordsworth | [328] |
| On Cant and Hypocrisy | [330] |
| The Same Subject continued | [336] |
| CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ATLAS | |
| *Poetry | [339] |
| *English Grammar | [342] |
| *Memorabilia of Mr. Coleridge | [346] |
| *Peter Pindar | [348] |
| *Logic | [350] |
| *The Late Mr. Curran | [353] |
| *The Court Journal—A Dialogue | [354] |
| *The Late Dr. Priestley | [357] |
| *Sects and Parties | [360] |
| *Conversations as Good as Real (1) | [363] |
| *Conversations as Good as Real (2) | [369] |
| Trifles Light as Air | [370] |
| *Common Sense | [377] |
| *The Spirit of Controversy | [381] |
| Envy | [386] |
| On Prejudice | [391] |
| The Same Subject continued | [394] |
| The Same Subject continued[[2]] | [396] |
| On Party-Spirit | [402] |
| MISCELLANEOUS | |
| Project for a New Theory of Civil and Criminal Legislation | [405] |
| On the Conduct of Life; or, Advice to a Schoolboy | [423] |
| Belief, whether Voluntary | [439] |
| Definition of Wit | [445] |
| Personal Politics | [456] |
| *The Emancipation of the Jews | [461] |
| *On the Punishment of Death | [466] |
| Notes | [473] |
| Addenda to the Notes in Vols. I.–XI. | [504] |
| Index to Titles of Hazlitt’s Writings | [508] |
FUGITIVE WRITINGS
THE FIGHT
The New Monthly Magazine.] [February, 1822.
‘——The fight, the fight’s the thing,
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.’
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.—I said so to myself, as I walked down Chancery-lane, about half-past six o’clock on Monday the 10th of December, to inquire at Jack Randall’s where the fight the next day was to be; and I found ‘the proverb’ nothing ‘musty’ in the present instance. I was determined to see this fight, come what would, and see it I did, in great style. It was my first fight, yet it more than answered my expectations. Ladies! it is to you I dedicate this description; nor let it seem out of character for the fair to notice the exploits of the brave. Courage and modesty are the old English virtues; and may they never look cold and askance on one another! Think, ye fairest of the fair, loveliest of the lovely kind, ye practisers of soft enchantment, how many more ye kill with poisoned baits than ever fell in the ring; and listen with subdued air and without shuddering, to a tale tragic only in appearance, and sacred to the Fancy!
I was going down Chancery-lane, thinking to ask at Jack Randall’s where the fight was to be, when looking through the glass-door of the Hole in the Wall, I heard a gentleman asking the same question at Mrs. Randall, as the author of Waverley would express it. Now Mrs. Randall stood answering the gentleman’s question, with the authenticity of the lady of the Champion of the Light Weights. Thinks I, I’ll wait till this person comes out, and learn from him how it is. For to say a truth, I was not fond of going into this house of call for heroes and philosophers, ever since the owner of it (for Jack is no gentleman) threatened once upon a time to kick me out of doors for wanting a mutton-chop at his hospitable board, when the conqueror in thirteen battles was more full of blue ruin than of good manners. I was the more mortified at this repulse, inasmuch as I had heard Mr. James Simpkins, hosier in the Strand, one day when the character of the Hole in the Wall was brought in question, observe—‘The house is a very good house, and the company quite genteel: I have been there myself!’ Remembering this unkind treatment of mine host, to which mine hostess was also a party, and not wishing to put her in unquiet thoughts at a time jubilant like the present, I waited at the door, when, who should issue forth but my friend Jo. Toms, and turning suddenly up Chancery-lane with that quick jerk and impatient stride which distinguishes a lover of the Fancy, I said, ‘I’ll be hanged if that fellow is not going to the fight, and is on his way to get me to go with him.’ So it proved in effect, and we agreed to adjourn to my lodgings to discuss measures with that cordiality which makes old friends like new, and new friends like old, on great occasions. We are cold to others only when we are dull in ourselves, and have neither thoughts nor feelings to impart to them. Give a man a topic in his head, a throb of pleasure in his heart, and he will be glad to share it with the first person he meets. Toms and I, though we seldom meet, were an alter idem on this memorable occasion, and had not an idea that we did not candidly impart; and ‘so carelessly did we fleet the time,’ that I wish no better, when there is another fight, than to have him for a companion on my journey down, and to return with my friend Jack Pigott, talking of what was to happen or of what did happen, with a noble subject always at hand, and liberty to digress to others whenever they offered. Indeed, on my repeating the lines from Spenser in an involuntary fit of enthusiasm,