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It is less easy to sum up the merits of the miscellaneous pieces, for the very obvious reason that they can hardly be brought under any general form or illustrated by any small number of typical instances. Perhaps the best way of “sampling” this undisciplined multitude is to select a few papers by name, so as to show the variety of Hazlitt’s interests. The one already mentioned, “On Going to a Fight,” which shocked some proprieties even in its own day, ranks almost first; but the reader should take care to accompany it with the official record of that celebrated contest between Neate and the Gasman. All fights are good reading; but this particular effort of Hazlitt’s makes one sigh for a Boxiana or Pugilistica edited by him. Next, I think, must be ranked “On Going a Journey,” with its fine appreciation of solitary travelling which does not exclude reminiscences of pleasant journeys in company. But these two, with the article on Poussin and the “Farewell to Essay-writing,” have been so often mentioned that it may seem as if Hazlitt’s store were otherwise poor. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The “Character of Cobbett” is the best thing the writer ever did of the kind, and the best thing known to me on Cobbett. “Of the Past and the Future” is perhaps the height of the popular metaphysical style–the style from which, as was noted, Hazlitt may never have got free as far as philosophising is concerned, but of which he is a master. “On the Indian Jugglers” is a capital example of what may be called improving a text; and it contains some of the most interesting and genial examples of Hazlitt’s honest delight in games such as rackets and fives, a delight which (heaven help his critics) was frequently regarded at the time as “low.” “On Paradox and Commonplace” is less remarkable for its contribution to the discussion of the subject, than as exhibiting one of Hazlitt’s most curious critical megrims–his dislike of Shelley. I wish I could think that he had any better reason for this than the fact that Shelley was a gentleman by birth and his own contemporary. Most disappointing of all, perhaps, is “On Criticism,” which the reader (as his prophetic soul, if he is a sensible reader, has probably warned him beforehand) soon finds to be little but an open or covert diatribe against the contemporary critics whom Hazlitt did not like, or who did not like Hazlitt. The apparently promising “On the Knowledge of Character” chiefly yields the remark that Hazlitt could not have admired Caesar if he had resembled (in face) the Duke of Wellington. But “My first Acquaintance with Poets” is again a masterpiece; and to me, at least, “Merry England” is perfect. Hazlitt is almost the only person up to his own day who dared to vindicate the claims of nonsense, though he seems to have talked and written as little of it as most men. The chapter “On Editors” is very amusing, though perhaps not entirely in the way in which Hazlitt meant it; but I cannot think him happy “On Footmen,” or on “The Conversation of Lords,” for reasons already sufficiently stated. A sun-dial is a much more promising subject than a broomstick, yet many essays might be written on sun-dials without there being any fear of Hazlitt’s being surpassed. Better still is “On Taste,” which, if the twenty or thirty best papers in Hazlitt were collected (and a most charming volume they would make), would rank among the very best. “On Reading New Books” contains excellent sense, but perhaps is, as Hazlitt not seldom is, a little deficient in humour; while the absence of any necessity for humour makes the discussion “Whether Belief is Voluntary” a capital one. Hazlitt is not wholly of the opinion of that Ebrew Jew who said to M. Renan, ” On fait ce qu’on veut mais on croit ce qu’on peut. “