Page:Hazlitt, Political Essays (1819).djvu/174

 that there is no such title-page to our copy,] "I would that the greater part of our publications could be thus directed, each to its appropriate class of readers. But this cannot be! For among other odd burs and kecksies, the misgrowth of our luxuriant activity, we have a, as strange a phrase, methinks, as ever forced a splenetic smile on the staid countenance of meditation; and yet no fiction! For our readers have, in good truth, multiplied exceedingly, and have waxed proud. It would require the intrepid accuracy of a Colquhoun"—[Intrepid and accurate applied to a Colquhoun! It seems that whenever an objection in matter of fact occurs to our author's mind, he instinctively applies the flattering unction of words to smooth it over to his conscience, as you apply a salve to a sore]—"to venture at the precise number of that vast company only, whose heads and hearts are dieted at the two public ordinaries of literature, the circulating libraries and the periodical press. But what is the result? Does the inward man thrive on this regimen? Alas! if the average health of the consumers may be judged of by the articles of largest consumption"—[Is not this a side-blow at the Times and Courier?]—"if the secretions may be conjectured from the ingredients of the dishes that are found best suited to their palates; from all that I have seen, either of the banquet or the guests, I shall utter my profaccia"—['Oh thou particular fellow!']—"with a desponding sigh: From a popular philosophy, and philosophic populace, good sense deliver us!"

Why so, any more than from a popular religion or a religious populace, on Mr. Coleridge's own principle, p. 12, "Reason and religion are their own evidence?" We should suspect that our unread author, the "Secret Tattle" of the Press, is thus fastidious, because he keeps an ordinary himself which is not frequented. He professes to be select: but we all know the secret of "seminaries for a limited number of pupils." Mr. Coleridge addresses his Lay-Sermon "to the higher classes," in his printed title-page: in that which is not printed he has announced it to be directed ad clerum, which might imply the clergy, but no: he