From William Hazlitt's essay *On the Ignorance of the Learned* (1821). Select the word that fits the blank. "The book-worm wraps himself up in his web of verbal generalities, and sees only the ______ shadows of things reflected from the minds of others."

The blank modifies *shadows of things reflected from the minds of others*. Hazlitt is calling these representations *weak, indirect, indistinct* — the bookworm sees them only as **faint** images, not as direct perceptions of reality. "Glimmering" — faintly shining, flickering — captures that indistinct quality. - "Blazing" reverses the meaning — these shadows are not vivid but pale. - "Tangible" is wrong because Hazlitt's whole point is that the bookworm has *lost touch with the tangible*; he sees only reflections. - "Precise" would dignify the bookworm's view; Hazlitt is doing the opposite. *Glimmering* (faint, intermittent light) survives in modern English in phrases like *a glimmer of hope* — a small, uncertain trace.