ABSTRACT
Although dated 1825 the first edition of The Spirit of the Age appeared in 1824. The text is reprinted here from the annotated edition by E. D. Mackerness (1969). The tone of this essay is notably temperate when compared with Hazlitt’s earlier tirades against Southey. Hazlitt’s perceptive evaluation of Southey’s prose style should be supplemented by his further comments in The Plain Speaker (No. 109).
