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men and turnkeys into satirists and philosophers, without once violating nature or probability. After further remarks on this production, and references to particular parts in illustration, Mr H. concluded his account of Gay by quoting his verses on Sir Richard Blackmore, as a character of that writer, and a specimen of Gay's manner.

The lecturer observed of Swift, that his reputation as a poet had been obscured by that which he enjoys as a prose writer; but that his name would have deserved to have gone down to posterity as a poet, even if he had never written Gulliver or the Tale of a Tub. His Imitations of Horace, and his Verses on his own death, entitle him to be placed in the first rank of agreeable moralists in verse. In these productions there is not only a dry humour, and an exquisite tone of irony, but a touching pathos, mixed with the strokes of pleasantry and satire. Mr Hazlitt referred to examples, and then remarked, that Swift was one of the most sensible of poets, but he was also one of the most nonsensical—he was very ready to oblige others and to forget himself. Here the lecturer entered at some length into the character of Swift's prose writings, in which he contrasted them with those of Voltaire and Rabelais. We cannot follow him through this digression, but must not omit to mention what he considered to be some of the distinctive features of these writers' genius. They were the greatest wits of modern times; but the wit of each was of a peculiar kind. Swift's wit was serious, saturnine, and practical,—Rabelais' was fantastical and joyous,—Voltaire's was light, sportive, and verbal. Swift's wit was the wit of sense,—Rabelais' the wit of nonsense,—Voltaire's of indifference to both. Swift hated absurdity. Rabelais loved it, exaggerated it with supreme satisfaction, rioted in it. He dwelt on the ludicrous for the pleasure it gave him, not for the pain. He lived upon his wit—it was his wealth; and he was prodigal of it, because he felt that it was inexhaustible. Rabelais was a Frenchman of the old school—Voltaire of the new. The wit of the one arose from exuberance of enjoyment of the other from excess of indifference.

Mr Hazlitt proceeded to speak of Young, Collins, and Gray. Young he described as a gloomy epigrammatist, who abused great powers both of thought and language, and spoiled the effect of his moral reflections by overloading them with religious horror. The Revenge he described as monkish and scholastic, and Zanga as a vulgar caricature of Iago.

Collins Mr H. considered as possessing less general power of mind than Young, but much more of the true vivida vis, the genuine inspiration which can alone give birth to the highest efforts of poetry. He was the only one of the minor poets of whom, if he had lived, the highest things might have been anticipated. He is sometimes affected and obscure; but in his best works there is a simplicity, a pathos, and a fervour of imagination, which make us the more lament the unfortunate circumstances in which he was placed. Mr Hazlitt here alluded to Collins's unhappy life, and that of some other of the English poets, and then spoke of Gray. He had much less poetical genius than Collins, and his Pindaric Odes are stately and pedantic—a kind of methodical madness; but his Elegy in a Country Church-yard is a fine effusion of a refined and thoughtful mind, moralizing on human life.

After noticing Akenside, Goldsmith, Warton, &c. Mr Hazlitt concluded his lecture by some remarks on Chatterton, whom he scarcely seemed inclined to consider as a poet at all. His works, he said, had nothing remarkable in them but the age at which they were written. The facility, and vigour, and knowledge which they displayed, were extraordinary in a boy of sixteen, but would not have been so in a man of twenty. He did not shew extraordinary genius, but extraordinary precocity. Nor do I believe, said Mr H., he would have written better had he lived. He knew this himself, or he would have lived.

February 25th, 1818.