Eschylus, of making "ducks and drakes," counting with the utmost glee the number of bounds, as the flat stones flew skimming over the surface of the water; nor was he less delighted with floating down the wind, paper boats, in the constructing of which, habit had given him a wonderful skill. He took as great interest in the sailing of his frail vessels as a ship-builder may do in that of his vessels-and when one escaped the dangers of the winds and waves, and reached in safety the opposite shore, he would run round to hail the safe termination of its voyage. Mr. H. gives a very pleasant account of Shelley's fondness for this sort of navigation, and on one occasion, wearied with standing shivering on the bank of the canal, said, "Shelley, there is no use in talking to you, you are the Demiurgus of Plato.' He instantly caught up the whole flotilla he was preparing, and bounding homewards with mighty strides, laughed aloud,laughed like a giant, as he used to say."

Singular contrast to the profound speculations

in which he was engaged. He now, rankling with the sense of wrong, and hardened by persecution, and the belief that the logic of his Syllabus had been unrespected because it could not be shaken, applied himself more closely than ever to that Sceptical philosophy, which he had begun to discard for Plato, and would, but for his expulsion, have soon entirely adandoned. He reverted to his Queen Mab, commenced a year and a half before, and converted what was a mere imaginative poem into a systematic attack on the institutions of society. He not only corrected the versification with great care, but more than doubled its length, and appended to the text the Notes, which were at that time scarcely, if at all begun. The intolerance of the members of a religion, which should be that of love and charity and long-suffering, in his own case, made him throw the odium on the creed itself; and he argues that it is ever a proof that the falsehood of a proposition is felt by those who use coercion, not reasoning, to procure its admission, and adds, that a dispassionate observer would feel himself H 5

more powerfully interested in favour of a man, who, depending on the truth of his opinions, simply stated his reasons for entertaining them, than that of his aggressor, who daringly avowing his unwillingness or incapacity to answer them by argument, proceeded to repress the energies and break the spirit of their promulgator."

Like a man dominated by a fixed idea, Shelley's reading, in the concoction of these notes, was one-sided. In addition to Hume's Essays,* which were his hand-book,—and I remember ridiculing the chapter entitled a Sceptical Solution of Sceptical Doubts, asking him what could be made of a doubtful solution of doubtful doubts?-he dug out of the British Museum, Voltaire, Spinosa,

*The dilemma in which Hume placed Philosophy delighted him. He at that time thought the sceptical mode of reasoning unanswerable. Berkley denied the existence of matter, or rather of the substratum of matter. Hume, going deeper, endeavoured to show mind a figment. Berkley says Hume professes in his title-page to have composed his book against sceptics as well as Atheists and Freethinkers; but all his arguments, though otherwise intended, are in reality sceptical, as appears from this, that they admit of no answer, and produce no conviction.

Volney, Godwin's Political Justice and Enquirer and many other French and English works, to suit his purpose, and in the course of the year printed that extraordinary talented poem of which I have already spoken at much length, and shall still frequently have to allude to.

In the autumn, the rage of Shelley's father having somewhat cooled down, he was received at home, but the reconciliation was hollow and insincere. Sir Timothy, who, proud of his son's talents, had looked forward to his acquiring high academical distinctions, felt deeply, not so much the disgrace of the expulsion, as an apprehension that the circumstance might tend heareafter to affect the brilliant worldly carcer he had etched out for his heir, marring his prospct of filling the seat in parliament which he then occupied, and intended one day to resign in favour of Percy Bysshe But it is doubtful if Shelley would, with all his eloquence, have made a politician. He shrunk with an unconquerable dislike from political articles; he Lever could be induced to read one. The Duke of Norfolk, who was a friend of his

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father, and to whom his grandfather owed his title, often engaged him, when dining, as he occasionally did, in St. James's Square, to turn his thoughts towards politics." You cannot direct your attention too early to them," said the Duke.

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They are the proper career of a young man of ability and of your station in life. That career is most advantageous, because it is a monopoly. A little success in that line goes far, since the number of competitors is limited, and of those who are admitted to the contest, the greater part are wholly devoid of talent, or too indolent to exert themselves. So many are excluded, that of the few who are permitted to enter, it is difficult to find any that are not utterly unfit for the ordinary service of the state. It is not so in the church; it is not so at the bar. There all may offer themselves. In letters your chance of success is still worse

there none can win gold, and all may try to gain reputation-it is a struggle for glory, the competition is infinite;-there are no bounds;that is a spacious field indeed, a sea without a shore."