#hazlitt

Grace in women has more effect than beauty.

- William Hazlitt

Context: Ossian is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as Fingal (1761) and Temora (1763), and later combined under the title The Poems of Ossian.

“I am rejoiced to see Hazlitt speak for Ossian. There is nothing more contemptable in that contemptable man (tho' good poet, in his department) Wordsworth, than his contempt for Ossian. And nothing that more raises my idea of Napoleon than his great admiration for him.—The loneliness of the spirit of Ossian harmonized with the loneliness of the greatness of Napoleon.”

Melville wrote this around 1862 in the margins of his copy of Hazlitt’s Lectures on the English Comic Writers and Lectures on the English Poets

i remember reading this piece back in 2016 and feeling bowled over by its profundity and the difficult questions it asks about the nature of collective identity. i still think about this piece on a regular basis. it does feel a little dated in some ways considering the increasing prevalence of anti-semitic attacks over the past few years - the “sword of anti-semitism” doesn’t actually hang as far away as many of us may have been lulled into thinking - but most of what andrew paul writes about still rings very true. how does a historically marginalized group retain a sense of shared identity outside of its marginalization? is that marginalization the only truly shared experience between people of that group? what does it mean for the endurance of that culture if the group no longer experiences oppression? justice, equality, peace - these are all things jewish communities have strived for over centuries, but is anything lost if or when those goals are achieved?

none of this is to imply that anti-semitism is a thing of the past or that there aren’t enriching experiences and customs that are part of being jewish. but many of those experiences and customs vary depending on what denomination you belong to, what part of the world your judaism originates from, or if you even practice the religion. it’s so hard to say if there’s anything as largely unifying as shared oppression, no matter how bleak that sounds.

Cover to Janet Ruth Heller’s Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, and the Reader of Drama—University of Missouri Press Edition (unknown artist/designer, 1990).