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PRINCE ALEXY HAIMATOFF.[1]
[Memoirs of Prince Alexy Haimatoff. Translated from the original
Latin MSS. under the immediate inspection of the Prince. By
John Brown, Esq. Pp. 236, 12mo. Hookham, 1814.][2]
Is the suffrage of mankind the legitimate criterion of intellectual energy? Are complaints of the aspirants to literary fame to be considered as the honourable disappointment of neglected genius, or the sickly impatience of a dreamer miserably self deceived? the most illustrious ornaments of the annals of the human race have been stigmatised by the contempt and abhorrence of entire communities of man; but this injustice arose out of some temporary superstition, some partial interest, some national doctrine: a glorious redemption awaited their remembrance. There is indeed, nothing so remarkable in the contempt of the ignorant for the enlightened: the vulgar pride of folly delights to triumph upon mind. This is an intelligible process: the infamy or ingloriousness that can be thus
- ↑ From The Critical Review, December 1814, vol. vi. pp. 566-574.
- ↑ This pseudonymous romance, as wild in its conception and execution as Shelley's own romances of Zastrozzi and St. Irvyne, was the work of Shelley's college-friend and biographer, Thomas Jefferson Hogg. To Professor Dowden of Dublin, Shelley's latest biographer, is due the credit of disinterring and drawing public attention to Shelley's curious critical notice of it.—Ed.
