From William Hazlitt's essay *On the Ignorance of the Learned* (1821). Select the word that fits the blank. "Such a one may be said to carry his understanding about with him in his pocket, or to leave it at home on his library shelves. He is afraid of venturing on any train of reasoning, or of striking out any observation that is not ______ suggested to him by parsing his eyes over certain legible characters."

Hazlitt is criticising the learned reader who can think only when prompted by the printed page. The blank must describe a kind of suggestion that comes *automatically*, *without effort or originality* — that is, by *rote* rather than by living thought. "Mechanically" — by mechanism, automatically, without conscious thought — captures the dismissive sense exactly. - "Solemnly" and "urgently" import emotional weight that contradicts Hazlitt's image of a passive reader. - "Originally" is the *opposite* of what Hazlitt is describing — he's saying the reader **cannot** be original. The figure *carries his understanding in his pocket* reinforces the answer: mechanical, externalised cognition.