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    draught or outline of the plan of his Essay was made at the age of ei ghteen , an instance of early developement of the reasoning powers that has few parallels in history . He had previously , however , written several brief metaphysical treatises as studies ; and it appears from certain letters of remonstrance on his part , that his father entertained objections to his engaging his mind in

    speculations of so abstruse and important a nature at such an age . These objections seem to have been eventually overruled by subsequent letters , in one of which his son enters into an explanation of the plan and purpose of his argument in the projected Essay . But the work itself was the laboured production of eight years , and was not published till 1808 , the author being then twenty-six ygars of age .

    This work was read by a few friends , and here and there , perhaps , by some solitary abstract thinker , and was then no more heard of than if it had never been written . After remaining in utter oblivion , with the exception of a synopsis of it by the author in his Letter to Gifford , during seven and twenty years , some probability of its examination is now afforded by the announcement of a

    second edition , the first having been long out of print ; and the admirers of Hazlitt ' s writings will be gratified in learning the fact , that numerous applications have already been made to the publisher . In the ensuing numbers of the ' Repository , ' a disquisition on the genius and writings of its author will be attempted . With reference , however , to the present Essay , we are not aware

    of anybody having ever taken up the question in any way . It is , nevertheless , the only work to which the author ever adverts with satisfaction in his subsequent productions . One of the two instances occurs in the Essay on Great and Little Things / after a deeply poetic impersonation of the spirit of concentrated human a Sections .

    * The image of some fair creature is engraven on my inmost soul ; it is on that I build my claim to her regard , and expect her to see my heart as I see her form always before me . Whereever she treads , pale primroses , like her facf , vernal hyacinths , like her brow , spring up beneath her feet , and music hangs on every bough : but all is cold , barren , and desolate without her . Thus I feel , and thus I think . But have I ever told her so ? No .

    Or if I did , would she understand it ? No . I " hunt the wind —I worship a statue—cry aloud to the desert . " To see beauty , is not to be beautiful ; to pine in love , is not to be loved again . — I always was inclined to raise and magnify the power of Love . I thought that his sweet power should only be exerted to bind to *

    getiier the loveliest forms and fondest hearts ; that none but those in whom his godhead shone outwardly , and was inly felt , boutd ever partake of his triump h * ;—and 1 stood and gased it a dpmtance , as unworthy to mingle in so bri ght a thrpug , an 4 ^ i 4 not ( even for a moment ) wish to tarnish the glory of so brifcht a vision

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    HmtUfM First K—ay . 481

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 1, 1835, page 481, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2647/page/45/