Literary Remains, vol 2 | Page 2

my flighty and paradoxical turn of
mind; all tending to prove that Shakspeare's judgment was, if possible,
still more wonderful than his genius; or rather, that the
contradistinction itself between judgment and genius rested on an
utterly false theory. This, and its proofs and grounds have been--I
should not have said adopted, but produced as their own legitimate
children by some, and by others the merit of them attributed to a

foreign writer, whose lectures were not given orally till two years after
mine, rather than to their countryman; though I dare appeal to the most
adequate judges, as Sir George Beaumont, the Bishop of Durham, Mr.
Sotheby, and afterwards to Mr. Rogers and Lord Byron, whether there
is one single principle in Schlegel's work (which is not an admitted
drawback from its merits), that was not established and applied in detail
by me. Plutarch tells us, that egotism is a venial fault in the unfortunate,
and justifiable in the calumniated, &c. ...

Extract from a Letter to J. Britton, Esq.
28th Feb., 1819, Highgate.
Dear Sir,
--First permit me to remove a very natural, indeed almost inevitable,
mistake, relative to my lectures; namely, that I 'have' them, or that the
lectures of one place or season are in any way repeated in another. So
far from it, that on any point that I had ever studied (and on no other
should I dare discourse--I mean, that I would not lecture on any subject
for which I had to 'acquire' the main knowledge, even though a month's
or three months' previous time were allowed me; on no subject that had
not employed my thoughts for a large portion of my life since earliest
manhood, free of all outward and particular purpose)--on any point
within my habit of thought, I should greatly prefer a subject I had never
lectured on, to one which I had repeatedly given; and those who have
attended me for any two seasons successively will bear witness, that the
lecture given at the London Philosophical Society, on the 'Romeo and
Juliet', for instance, was as different from that given at the Crown and
Anchor, as if they had been by two individuals who, without any
communication with each other, had only mastered the same principles
of philosophic criticism. This was most strikingly evidenced in the
coincidence between my lectures and those of Schlegel; such, and so
close, that it was fortunate for my moral reputation that I had not only
from five to seven hundred ear witnesses that the passages had been
given by me at the Royal Institution two years before Schlegel

commenced his lectures at Vienna, but that notes had been taken of
these by several men and ladies of high rank. The fact is this; during a
course of lectures, I faithfully employ all the intervening days in
collecting and digesting the materials, whether I have or have not
lectured on the same subject before, making no difference. The day of
the lecture, till the hour of commencement, I devote to the
consideration, what of the mass before me is best fitted to answer the
purposes of a lecture, that is, to keep the audience awake and interested
during the delivery, and to leave a sting behind, that is, a disposition to
study the subject anew, under the light of a new principle. Several
times, however, partly from apprehension respecting my health and
animal spirits, partly from the wish to possess copies that might
afterwards be marketable among the publishers, I have previously
written the lecture; but before I had proceeded twenty minutes, I have
been obliged to push the MS. away, and give the subject a new turn.
Nay, this was so notorious, that many of my auditors used to threaten
me, when they saw any number of written papers on my desk, to steal
them away; declaring they never felt so secure of a good lecture as
when they perceived that I had not a single scrap of writing before me.
I take far, far more pains than would go to the set composition of a
lecture, both by varied reading and by meditation; but for the words,
illustrations, &c., I know almost as little as any one of the audience
(that is, those of anything like the same education with myself) what
they will be five minutes before the lecture begins. Such is my way, for
such is my nature; and in attempting any other, I should only torment
myself in order to disappoint my auditors--torment myself during the
delivery, I mean; for in all other respects it would be a much shorter
and easier task to deliver them from writing. I am anxious to preclude
any semblance of affectation; and have therefore troubled you with this
lengthy preface before I have