by William Hazlitt

“ On the question being started, Ayrton3 said, “I suppose the two first persons you would choose to see would be the two greatest names in English literature, Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Locke?” In this Ayrton, as usual, reckoned without his host. Everyone burst out a-laughing at the expression on Lamb’s face, in which impatience was restrained by courtesy. “Yes, the greatest names,” he stammered out hastily; “but they were not persons—not persons.” “Not persons,” said Ayrton, looking wise and foolish at the same time, afraid his triumph might be premature. ”

“ All will spie in thy face A blushing, womanly, discovering grace. Richly-cloath’d apes are call’d apes, and as soon Eclips’d as bright, we call the moone the moon. Men of France, changeable camelions, Spittles of diseases, shops of fashions, Love’s fuellers, and the rightest company Of players, which upon the world’s stage be, Will quickly know thee ... ”

“ I am sometimes, I suspect, a better reporter of the ideas of other people than expounder of my own. I pursue the one too far into paradox or mysticism; the others I am not bound to follow farther than I like, or than seems fair and reasonable. ”

“ For one, I should like to have seen and heard with my own eyes and ears. Certainly, by all accounts, if anyone was ever moved by the true histrionic æstus, it was Garrick. When he followed the Ghost in “Hamlet,” he did not drop the sword, as most actors do, behind the scenes, but kept the point raised the whole way round, so fully was he possessed with the idea, or so anxious not to lose sight of his part for a moment. ”

“ We were the less solicitous on this subject of filling up the posthumous lists of good women, as there was already one in the room as good, as sensible, and in all respects as exemplary, as the best of them could be for their lives! ”

“ I continued, “is as interesting a person as his own Ugolino, one whose lineaments curiosity would as eagerly devour in order to penetrate his spirit, and the only one of the Italian poets I should care much to see. There is a fine portrait of Ariosto by no less a hand than Titian’s; light, Moorish, spirited, but not answering our idea. The same artist’s large colossal profile of Peter Aretine is the only likeness of the kind that has the effect of conversing with ‘the mighty dead’ ”

“ This great and celebrated man in some of his works recommends it to pour a bottle of claret into the ground of a morning, and to stand over it, inhaling the perfumes. So he sometimes enriched the dry and barren soil of speculation with the fine aromatic spirit of his genius. His essays and his “Advancement of Learning” are works of vast depth and scope of observation. The last, though it contains no positive discoveries, is a noble chart of the human intellect, and a guide to all future inquirers.—H.
[15] In the original form of the essay, this speech is given to Hunt. ”

“ Evremont, etc.
“There is one person,” said a shrill, querulous voice, “I would rather see than all these—Don Quixote!”
“Come, come!” said Hunt; “I thought we should have no heroes, real or fabulous. What say you, Mr. Lamb? Are you for eking out your shadowy list with such names as Alexander, Julius Caesar, Tamerlane, or Genghis Khan?” “Excuse me,” said Lamb; “on the subject of characters in active life, plotters and disturbers of the world, I have a crotchet of my own, which I beg leave to reserve.” “No, no! come out with your worthies!” “What do you think of Guy Fawkes and Judas Iscariot?” ”

“ Locke and Sir Isaac Newton, you mean the ‘Essay on the Human Understanding,’ and the ‘Principia,’ which we have to this day. Beyond their contents there is nothing personally interesting in the men. But what we want to see anyone bodily for, is when there is something peculiar, striking in the individuals, more than we can learn from their writings, and yet are curious to know. I dare say Locke and Newton were very like Kneller’s portraits of them. But who could paint Shakespeare?” “Ay,” retorted Ayrton, “there it is ”

“ Erasmus Phillips, who was deep in a game of piquet at the other end of the room, whispered to Martin Burney to ask if “Junius” would not be a fit person to invoke from the dead. “Yes,” said Lamb, “provided he would agree to lay aside his mask.” ”

“ If so, it would be an additional reason for my liking him; and I would give something to have seen him seated in the tent with the youthful Majesty of Britain, and penning the Proclamation to all true subjects and adherents of the legitimate government.”
“I thought,” said Ayrton, turning short round upon Lamb, “that you of the Lake School did not like Pope?” “Not like Pope! My dear sir, you must be under a mistake—I can read him over and over forever!” “Why, certainly, the ‘Essay on Man’ must be allowed to be a masterpiece.” “It may be so, but I seldom look into it.” “Oh! ”