moderate wants. While residing here, the then Duke of Norfolk, who owned a large extent of land in the neighborhood, greatly interested himself in Shelley and his girl wife, introduced them to the neighboring gentry, directed his agents to furnish their house with necessary accommodations; and interceded (but in vain) with the elder Mr. Shelley. The young poet became speedily acquainted with Robert Southey, Thomas De Quincey, and other eminent writers then resident in the north. With Southey he was particularly intimate for a time, despite the diametrical opposition of their creeds. It was in the year 1811, also -but previous to his marriage that Shelley sought and obtained the friendship of Leigh Hunt, whose noble-spirited political writings in the Examiner had moved the highest admiration of the youthful enthusiast. While the latter was yet unknown to the journalist, he had proposed to him, in a letter, a scheme for forming an association of Liberals, with a view to resisting the spread of despotic principles; and this was followed by Shelley's self-introduction. The friendship of the two writers was only broken by death.

CHAPTER IV.

SHELLEY'S ACQUAINTANCE WITH GODWIN.

We now come to that period of Shelley's life when the poet became acquainted with William Godwin-a period fraught with important results, and one over which it will be necessary to linger.

He

An eminent place among the writers of the eighteenth century is due to the author of Political Justice. came of a family which had long been connected with the Nonconformist ministry; for both his father and grandfather were Dissenting preachers in their generation, and the grandfather had enjoyed the intimate friendship of Dr. Watts, Neale, and Baker. William Godwin was born at Questwich, Norfolk, in 1756. He was educated at the Hoxton College by Dr. Kippis and Dr. Rees, and for some time followed the profession of his father at Stowmarket, Suffolk; but, in 1782, owing to a change in his religious opinions, he returned to London, and for ten years devoted himself with unwearied assiduity to historical and methaphysical inquiries. The result of this mental discipline was the publication, in 1793, of his Political Justice, the effect of which work on the public mind is sufficiently attested by the fact that

Caleb Wil

three editions were sold in as many years. liams and the Enquirer followed, and gave Godwin a reputation which he preserved unsullied through the whole of his long life.

From the commencement of his career in London, the philosopher lived in a small cottage, without any further attendance than that of a woman who came every morning to set the house in order for the day. Liberal overtures from the leaders of the Whig phalanx, who desired to enlist in their service so eminent and influential an author, were repeatedly made to him, and as often refused; for Godwin, like a second Andrew Marvell, disdained to be the slave of party. This stern independence of character, combined with the mild, unimpassioned manner with which he prosecuted his inquiries into subjects which most men at that time debated with the fierceness and acrimony of personal strife, soon gathered round him a small knot of disciples, who sat at his feet and gathered up his sayings as they might have done those of a sage of ancient Greece. He became, as it were, the recognized head of a small sect; and of this sect Shelley speedily regarded himself as a member. The poet wrote to the philosopher from Keswick, and, frankly stating his position, his marriage, and his prospects, proceeded to reveal his political, religious, and moral opinions, and to declare his longcherished hope of being on some future day of use to his fellow-creatures. Towards this end, and for the better regulation of his pursuits and studies, he requested the aid of the author of Political Justice.

Godwin received this unexpected communication with great kindness, and a long and interesting correspondence ensued between the two writers. Some portions of this will be found in the present volume.

From Keswick, Shelley went to Dublin, and during this period the influence of his newly acquired friend and adviser was of incalculable benefit to him, in guarding him from the consequences which his own fearless impetuosity would have entailed, in his championship of Irish wrongs. Ireland was at that time a disgrace to England and to herself. A dominant caste-proud, resolute, and vindictive, opposed to all change, and certain, in the last resort, of the support of England's strength — misruled a population which was priest-ridden, ignorant, and adverse from labor. The priests themselves (with the exception of those who had been specially educated on the Continent, for the purpose of representing the interests and maintaining the dignity of their church in the more polished circles of Dublin) were scarcely more literate than the rabble over whom they possessed unbounded influence; and the Union had handed over to still meaner minds and yet more uncleanly hands the traditionary struggles for the perquisites of a delegated Court.

Loud was the cry of Irish patriotism when Shelley visited the sister island, where he flung himself, with his usual impulsive ardor, into the turbid stream of Hibernian politics. It was then that the value of Godwin's calm, experienced intellect became manifest; for there is no doubt that his letters supplied the necessary balance

of prudence and mature thought to the youthful vehemence of Shelley's mind. This good effect was aided by an adventure which occurred to Bysshe during his advocacy of Irish grievances. On one occasion, at a meeting probably a meeting of patriots so much ill-will against the Protestants was shown, that Shelley was provoked to remark that the Protestants were fellow-Christians and fellow-subjects, and were therefore entitled to equal rights and equal toleration with the Papists. Of course, he was forthwith interrupted by savage yells. A fierce uproar ensued, and the denouncer of bigotry was compelled to be silent. At the same meeting, and afterwards, he was even threatened with personal violence, and the police suggested to him the propriety of quitting the country.

The philanthropic association which was to bestow Arcadian days on Ireland was accordingly abandoned, and, after a brief stay in the Isle of Man, and a residence of some duration in North Wales, Shelley and his wife sheltered themselves in a cottage at Lymouth, a place situated in a romantic part of North Devonshire. While here, Bysshe addressed a letter to Lord Ellenborough, touching the sentence passed by him on a man named Eaton, a London bookseller, for publishing the third part of Thomas Paine's Age of Reason. In a letter to Godwin he says:

"What do you think of Eaton's trial and sentence? I mean not to insinuate that this poor bookseller has any characteristics in common with Socrates or Jesus Christ; still, the spirit which pillories and imprisons him is the