Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/324

 and his tutor, who had found him backward in some of his studies, encouraged him to elaborate this essay (published in his ‘Literary Remains’). For some reason, not stated, he gave up all thoughts of the ministry about 1797. In January 1798 Coleridge, then on the point of leaving the unitarians, visited the elder Hazlitt at Wem, and there preached his last sermon. Young Hazlitt was profoundly impressed, and attracted the kindly notice of the preacher. The lad tried to explain a metaphysical discovery which he supposed himself to have made. Coleridge encouraged his disciple to pursue the inquiry (which ultimately resulted in Hazlitt's ‘Principles of Human Action’), and invited a visit. Hazlitt, accordingly, in the following spring went to see Coleridge at Stowey, passed three weeks there, made an excursion with Coleridge to Lynton and met Wordsworth. A pamphlet published in 1806 was the result of Hazlitt's study of Coleridge's articles (of 1800) in the ‘Morning Post.’

Hazlitt now lived chiefly at his father's, and acquired most of the knowledge which was afterwards to be turned to account. He read few books, but studied those few thoroughly, enjoyed them keenly, and delighted in solitary thought. He studied the chief English philosophical writers from the time of Hobbes, but read neither Greek nor German. Burke, Junius, and Rousseau were among his chief favourites, Rousseau chiefly for the ‘Confessions’ and the ‘Nouvelle Héloïse,’ which he knew almost by heart. Cooke's ‘British Novelists’ introduced him to Fielding, Smollett, and Richardson; he had much of Shakespeare at his fingers' ends, and was fond of Boccaccio. His reading was necessarily fragmentary in youth, and he confessed frankly to the many blanks which he never filled. His love of reading afterwards diminished, and it is said that he never read a book through after he was thirty (Plain Speaker, ‘On Reading Old Books,’ W. C. Hazlitt, i. 80, 185, 191).

His brother John had studied under Reynolds, exhibited in the Academy from 1788, and was getting into fair practice as a miniature-painter. William, who had also shown early artistic tastes, resolved to follow his brother's profession. He learnt the elements of the art, probably under his brother, and spent four months at Paris in the winter of 1802–3, making copies of pictures at the Louvre, for which he had several commissions from his friends. After his return he made a tour in the north and painted some portraits, including those of Hartley Coleridge and Wordsworth. Wordsworth's portrait was destroyed as unsatisfactory. Although Hazlitt acquired, and always preserved, a strong love of the art, he gradually became convinced that he could not succeed so far as to satisfy his own ambition. A list of his known paintings is given in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt's biography (i. xvi). The most interesting was the portrait of Lamb as a Venetian senator, executed probably in 1805 (now in the National Portrait Gallery). This was, it seems, his last attempt. He was dividing his time between Wem and London. His brother John was known to the Lambs. His own acquaintance with Coleridge, the unitarian preacher Joseph Fawcett [q. v.], and Wordsworth procured him easy admission to the circles of which Lamb and Godwin were the centres. He began to turn his early studies to account. He published in 1806 his ‘Principles of Human Action.’ He took Godwin's part in the controversy with Malthus in 1807, and in the same year published an abridgment of Tucker's ‘Light of Nature’ and a volume of selections from parliamentary speeches. In 1808 he prepared a grammar, embodying the ‘discoveries of Mr. Horne Tooke,’ which, however, did not appear till 1810. His ethical treatise was scrupulously dry, though showing great acuteness. His other works, though honest task-work, were not calculated to win popularity.

Meanwhile he had been falling in love at short intervals, and with a want of success which left some permanent pangs. During his northern tour he had become attached to a Miss Railton, daughter of some family friends at Liverpool. Her relations thought his prospects too doubtful, and the affair was broken off. In the Lakes the deceitful daughter of a farmer led him into a flirtation which seems to have ended in his being ducked in the village brook (, i. 105; Lamb's Letters, ed. Ainger, i. 279;, iii. 141). De Quincey declares that he made an offer to Miss Wordsworth (Works, ii. 201), and other passing attachments are mentioned. At some time, probably after June 1806 (see, i. 137, where the letter from Mary Lamb seems to be inconsistent with Mr. Hazlitt's theory of a previous lovemaking), he became acquainted with Miss Sarah Stoddart, daughter of a retired naval officer, and sister of Dr. Stoddart, afterwards editor of the ‘Times.’ The Stoddarts were friends of John Hazlitt, and through him of the Lambs. In 1807 Hazlitt was engaged to Miss Stoddart. There were some difficulties as to ways and means. Miss Stoddart had inherited from her father a small property at Winterslow, some six miles from Salisbury, producing about 120l. a year. This was settled upon her, ‘at her brother's insti-