Audiobook The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 07 (of 12)

William Hazlitt opens this collection by examining the prose style of poets, arguing that the metrical habits of verse often render poets awkward and disjointed when they turn to unmeasured prose. He contrasts the laboured ornaments of poets with the direct, forceful, and truth-guided prose of Edmund Burke, who worked striking effects out of unpromising materials by keeping his mind in constant contact with his subject. Subsequent essays address the physiology of sleep and dreams, dissecting the confusion of the sleeping mind where the connecting link of conscious reasoning is temporarily lost and single ideas float at random. Hazlitt then turns to the conversation of authors, defending their right to silence in ordinary social settings and arguing that genuine literary conversation requires an atmosphere of shared taste, unreserved discussion, and mutual sympathy rather than hostile disputes or fashionable etiquette.

In further essays, he champions the vital role of imagination and passion in moral reasoning, asserting that abstract logic without concrete feeling leaves human nature cold and heartless. He discusses the relation between genius and regular industry, demonstrating through the examples of the old masters that true creators are prolific because power is pleasure and success prompts exertion. Finally, Hazlitt reflects on the Cockney character, the psychological nuances of sitting for a portrait, the dynamics of envy in intellectual circles, and the unconscious nature of true genius, which produces immortal works from natural disposition rather than self-conscious calculation.