THE SPIRIT OF OR CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS. BY WILLIAM HAZLITT. THIRD EDITION. Gdited by his Son. LONDON: C. TEMPLEMAN, GREAT PORTLAND STREET. MDCCCLVIII. 210. i. 213. THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. HORNE TOOKE. MR HORNE TOOKE was one of those who may be considered as connecting links between a former period and the existing generation. His education and accomplishments, nay, his political opinions, were of the last age; his mind, and the tone of his feelings were modern. There was a hard, dry materialism in the very texture of his understanding, varnished over by the external refinements of the old school. Tooke had great scope of attainment, and great versatility of pursuit; but the same shrewdness, quickness, cool self-possession, the same literalness of perception, and absence of passion and enthusiasm, characterised nearly all he did, said, or wrote. He was without a rival (almost) in private conversation, an expert public R Mr |