Table-Talk · Chapter
Why Distant Objects Please explained
Hazlitt explores the psychological and aesthetic appeal of distant objects, arguing that distance—whether in space or time—allows the imagination to clothe objects with ideal beauty and emotional significance.
What happens
Hazlitt explores the psychological and aesthetic appeal of distant objects, arguing that distance—whether in space or time—allows the imagination to clothe objects with ideal beauty and emotional significance. He reflects on how memory, hope, and desire shape our perceptions, and how childhood scenes, sounds, and smells retain a vivid, almost sacred power over us.
Themes in this chapter
The Psychology of Habit and Novelty
Hazlitt examines how distance and rarity enhance pleasure, while familiarity and proximity diminish it, using examples of sounds, smells, and childhood memories.
Art and Nature
The essay discusses how the imagination transforms natural scenes and objects into artful, idealized forms, and how memory preserves them with heightened sensory detail.
Characters to notice
- William Hazlitt
The author and narrator, reflecting on personal memories and philosophical observations about distance and imagination.
- Leigh Hunt
Mentioned as the author of a paper in the Indicator on toy-shops, which Hazlitt praises and declines to imitate.
- William Shakespeare
Quoted for the line 'How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night!' and referenced in the discussion of sound and memory.
Key passages
“Distant objects please, because, in the first place, they imply an idea of space and magnitude, and because, not being obtruded too close upon the eye, we clothe them with the indistinct and airy colours of fancy.”
We enjoy distant things because they suggest vastness and allow our imagination to dress them in dreamy, idealized hues.
Opening thesis of the essay, establishing the core argument about distance and imagination.
“Time takes out the sting of pain; our sorrows after a certain period have been so often steeped in a medium of thought and passion that they 'unmould their essence'; and all that remains of our original impressions is what we would wish them to have been.”
With time, painful memories lose their sharpness and are reshaped by reflection into something we prefer to remember.
Hazlitt's meditation on how temporal distance softens grief and alters memory.
“Sounds, smells, and sometimes tastes, are remembered longer than visible objects, and serve, perhaps, better for links in the chain of association.”
Non-visual sensations like sounds, smells, and tastes are more durable in memory and act as stronger triggers for recollection.
Key observation on the comparative power of different senses in memory.