From The Cornhill Magazine.
GODWIN AND SHELLEY.

ciations, and by the tendency to discover a mystical significance in natural objects. Some people would urge that his philosophy would have been improved if it had been equally free from poetical elements. In any case, Coleridge is an example of a combination of diverse excellence not easily to be parallelled. Another poet was supposed by some of his admirers to have similar claims upon our respect. Shelley seems to have thought himself as well fitted for abstract speculation as for poetry; . and his widow declared that, had he lived longer, he might have "presented to the world a complete theory of mind; a theory to which Berkeley, Coleridge, and Kant would have contributed; but more simple, unimpugnable, and entire than the systems

THE poetic and the metaphysical temperaments are generally held to be in some sense incompatible. Poets, indeed, have often shown the highest speculative acuteness, and philosophy often implies a really poetical imagination. But the necessary conditions of successful achievement in the two cases are so different that the combination of the two kinds of excellence in one man must be of excessive rarity. No man can be great as a philosopher who is incapable of brooding intensely and perseveringly over an abstract problem, absolutely unmoved by the emotion which is always seeking to bias his judgment; whilst a poet is great in virtue of the keenness of his sensibility to the emotional of those writers." The phrase is by itself aspect of every decision of the intellect. For the one purpose, it is essential to keep the passions apart from the intellect: for the other, to transfuse intellect with passion. A few of our metaphysicians have ventured into poetical utterance. Berkeley wrote a really fine copy of verses, and Hobbes struck out one famous couplet

And like a star upon her bosom lay
His beautiful and shining golden head,
in a translation of Homer, otherwise not
easily readable. Scott proposed to publish
the whole poetical works of David Hume,
consisting of a remarkable quatrain com-
posed in an inn at Carlisle.*

Here chicks in eggs for breakfast sprawl,
Here godless boys God's glories squall,
Here Scotchmen's heads do guard the wall,
But Corby's walks atone for all.

The only exception to this rule in our literature seems to be Coleridge. Coleridge undoubtedly exercised a vast influence upon the speculation of his countrymen, whilst his poems possess merits of the rarest order. It is more worthy of remark that his poetry is successful pretty much in proportion as he keeps it clear of his philosophy. In "Christabel," "The Ancient Mariner," or "Kubla Khan," we can only discover the philosopher by the evidence of a mind richly stored with asso

• Hume's biographer, Mr. Hill Burton, gives some other verses attributed to Hume; but the impartial critic must admit that they are of inferior merit.

enough to prove Mrs. Shelley's incom.
petence to form any opinion as to her
husband's qualifications for this stupen-
dous task. It is not by forming a patch-
work of Berkeley, Kant, and Coleridge,
that a "complete theory of mind" is likely
to be evolved; nor does it appear that
Shelley really knew much about either of
the latter writers; certainly, he has not
given the smallest proof of a power of
original speculation in such matters. And
yet, though it would be absurd to treat
Shelley seriously as an originator of philo-
sophic thought or even as a moderately
profound student of philosophy, there is
no doubt that his poetry contains a philo-
sophical element which deserves consider-
of his poetry.
ation if only to facilitate the comprehension

Enough has been written by the compe. tent and the incompetent, the prosaic and the poetical, the hyperbolical panegyrists and the calm analytical critics, of Shelley considered primarily as a poet. Nobody, as it seems to me, is entitled to add anything who has not himself a very unusual share, if not of Shelley's own peculiar genius, at least of receptivity for its products; and after all that has been written by the ablest writers, one can learn more of Shelley by getting, say, the "Adonais " or the "Ode to the Skylark" by heart than by studying volumes of talk about his Works. At any rate, I feel no vocation to add to the mass of imperfectly appreciative

disquisition. Recent discussions, however, | Shelley's intellectual developments, and seem to show both that some interest is indeed, seems to have partly overlooked still taken in the other aspect of Shelley's them. He tells us, for example, that Shelwritings, and that an obvious remark or ley's poems show an extreme suspicion two still remains to be made. People are of aged persons." Undoubtedly a youthin doubt whether to classify Shelley as ful enthusiast is apt to be shocked by the atheist, pantheist, or theist; they dispute dogged conservatism of older men who as to whether his writings represent the have been hammered into a more accurate destructive spirit which undermines all measure of the immovable weight of suthat is good amongst men, or, on the perincumbent prejudice in the human contrary, are the fullest expression yet reached by any human being of the divinest element of religion. Were it not that some parallel phenomena might be very easily suggested, it would be surprising that the meaning of a writer, who had extraordinary powers of expressing himself clearly and an almost morbid hatred of anything like reticence, should be seriously doubtful. The explanation of the wonder is not, I think, very far to seek. For one thing, people have not yet made up their minds as to the true bearing of some opinions which Shelley undoubtedly held. The question whether they were of good or evil import is mixed up with the question as to whether they were true or false. Upon that problem I shall not touch; but a few pages may be occupied by an attempt to indicate what, as a matter of fact, Shelley actually held, or rather what was his general attitude as to certain important questions. One result will probably be that it matters very little what he held so far as his influence upon our own conclusions is concerned. For, to say nothing of Shelley's incapacity to deal satisfactorily with the great controversies of his own time, our point of view has so much shifted that we can consider his opinions almost as calmly as those of the Eleatics or the Pythagoreans. They are matters of his tory which need affect nobody at the pres-philosopher, and friend ent day.

The volume of essays by the late Mr. Bagehot, recently published, contains one upon Shelley, which deals very clearly and satisfactorily, as far as it goes, with this part of Shelley's work. Mr. Bagehot showed with his usual acuteness how Shelley's philosophy reflected the abnormal peculiarities of his character. He speaks less, however, of certain extraneous influences which must have materially affected

mind. Shelley could not revolt against things in general without contracting some dislike to the forces against which he inevitably ran his head at starting. Even here, indeed, the charm of Shelley's unworldly simplicity for men of an opposite type, for cynics like Hogg, and Peacock, and Byron, is one of the pleasantest indidications of his character. He attracted, and doubtless because he was attracted by, many who had nothing but contempt for his favorite enthusiasms, and it is still more evident that, however wayward was his career in some relations of life, he had a full measure of the young man's capacity for reverence. Dr. Lind seems to have been his earliest idol; but a far more important connection was that with Godwin. Godwin was in his fifty-sixth and Shelley in his twentieth year, when their correspondence began, and Godwin's most remarkable book was published when Shelley was in the cradle. Young gentlemen of nineteen, even though they belong to the immortals, consider a man of fiftysix to be tottering upon the verge of the grave. Books published before we could spell appear to have been composed before the invention of letters. To Shelley, in short, Godwin was to all intents and purposes a venerable sage, and a fitting embodiment of hoary wisdom. A guide, an oracle who can sanction his aspirations and direct him to the most promising paths—is almost a necessity to every youthful enthusiast; the more necessary in proportion as he has more emphatically broken with the established order. What J. S. Mill was to men who were in their early youth some twenty or thirty years ago, or Dr. Newman to young men of different views at a slightly earlier period, that Godwin was to Shelley in the years of his most impetuous specu

lation.

A lad of genius reads old books | and your dwelling. I had enrolled your with eager appetite and learns something name in the lists of the honorable dead. I from them; but to get the full influence of had felt regret that the glory of your being ideas he must feel that they come from a had passed from this earth of ours. It is living mouth, clothed in modern dialect, not so; you still live and, I firmly believe, and applied to the exciting topics of the are still planning the welfare of human day. Perhaps neither Mill nor Dr. New- kind." A letter written soon afterwards man said anything which might not be from Dublin is still more significant. It found implicitly contained in the writings begins with a kind of invocation as to a of their spiritual ancestors. Much of Mill saint. "Guide thou and direct me," exis already to be found in Locke, and Dr. claims the young gentleman; "in all the Newman is at times the interpreter of But- weakness of my inconsistencies bear with ler. But then Butler and Locke have been me; . . . when you reprove me, reason dead for a long time; and what the impa- speaks; I acquiesce in her decisions." tient youth requires is the direct evidence He presently defends the impatience which that the ancient principles are still alive Godwin has blamed by an argument which and efficient. The old key has probably evidently struck even Godwin as having an become rusty, and is more or less obsolete absurd side. The "Political Justice," he in form. The youth cannot wait to oil and says, was first published nearly twenty repair it for himself. He wants the last years before (or almost at the dawn of hisnew invention spick and span, and ready to tory !), but yet what has resulted from the be applied at once to open the obstinate general diffusion of its doctrines? "Have lock. Shelley read Helvetius and Hol- men ceased to fight? Have woe and misbach, and Berkeley and Hume; but, though ery vanished from the earth?" Far from they supplied him with a tolerably modern it! Obviously something must be done version of some ancient theories, they and that at once. Do I not well to be imcould not tell him by anticipation what pre-patient, he says, when such reasonable cise form of argument would best crush expectations have been so cruelly disapPaley, or what specific policy would regen- pointed? erate Ireland out of hand. For such purposes a young man wants the very last new teacher, and the chances are that he will read even the old philosophers through the spectacles which such a teacher is kind enough to provide.

He

It must be a most delightful sensation to have so ardent a disciple; but it must also be a trifle provoking when the ardor is of a kind to justify some misgiving as to the sanity of the proselyte. Even the vanity of a philosopher could hardly blind Thus, when looking about in this dark him to the fact that such extravagance world, given over as he thought to anti- tended to throw ridicule upon its object. quated prejudice embodied in cruel injus- Godwin, however, kept his countenance tice, poor Shelley greeted the writings of a little too easily perhaps and gave very Godwin as the lost traveller greets a bea- sensible advice to his proselyte. con-fire on a stormy night. They seemed pointed out in substance that it was not to contain a new gospel. When he discov- altogether amazing that vice and misery ered the author to be a real human being, had survived the publication of his wonnot one of the fixed stars that have been derful book, and still recommended paalready guiding us from the upper firmament, he threw himself at the philosopher's feet with the rapt fervor of a religious neophyte. In his first letters to Godwin, he pours out his heart: "Considering these feelings (the feelings, namely, of reverence and admiration which he has entertained for the name of Godwin), "you will not be surprised at the inconceivable emotions with which I learned your existence

tience and acceptance of the strange stupidity of mankind. We may suppose that in later years Shelley's reverence lost a little of its warmth: he came to know Godwin personally. Moreover, amongst his other tenets, the calm philosopher held the comfortable doctrine that philosophers might and ought to receive pecuniary assistance from the rich without any loss of dignity. The practical application of

this theory may perhaps have helped to convince Shelley that Godwin was not altogether free from earthly stains, and in fact not so indifferent as he ought to have been to the possible advantages of a connection with the heir to a baronetcy and a good estate.

fluence upon the poet. A full exposition
of Godwin's theories would display the
closeness of the mental affinity. That
may be found elsewhere; but a brief indi-
cation of his main tendencies will be suf-
ficient for the present purpose.
Godwin appeared to many youthful
contemporaries as may be seen from the
brilliant sketch in Hazlitt's "Spirit of the
Age” -as a very incarnation of philoso-
phy. "No work in our time," says Haz-
litt, "gave such a blow to the philosophical
mind of the country as the celebrated
Enquiry concerning Political Justice.'
Tom Paine was considered for the time a
Tom Fool to him, Paley an old woman,
Edmund Burke a flashy sophist. Truth,
moral truth, it was supposed, had here
taken up its abode, and these were the
oracles of thought.' Hazlitt is not given
to measuring his words, and he was proba-
bly wishing to please the decaying old gen-
tleman. But doubtless there is some
truth in the statement. Godwin was admi-
rably fitted to be an apostle of reason, so
far as a man can be fitted for that high
post by the negative qualifications of placid
temper and singular frigidity of disposi-
tion. He works out the most startling and
subversive conclusions with all the calm-
ness of a mathematician manipulating a
set of algebraical symbols. He lays down
doctrines which shock not only the reli-
gious reverence, but the ordinary con-
science of mankind, as quietly as if he
were stating a proposition of Euclid. An
entire absence of even a rudimentary sense
of humor is of course implied in this placid
enunciation of paradoxes without the
slightest perception of their apparent enor-
mity. But then a sense of humor is just
the quality which we do not desiderate in

For the present, however, Shelley sat humbly at Godwin's feet. He declared that from the "Political Justice he had learnt "all that was valuable in knowledge and virtue." He mixed with the queer little clique of vegetarians and crotchetmongers who shared his reverence for Godwin and excited the bitter contempt of Hogg. It is, therefore, not surprising that we find Shelley's doctrines to present a curiously close coincidence with Godwin's. Partly, no doubt, it was simply a coincidence. Shelley's temperament predisposed him to accept conclusions which were in the air of the time, and which were to be found more or less represented in many of his other authorities. But, at any rate, we may fairly assume not only that he, as he was eager to proclaim, learnt much from Godwin, but also that his whole course of thought was guided to a great degree by this living representative of his favorite theories. He studied the "Political Justice," pondered its words of wisdom, and examined its minutest details. One trifling indication may be mentioned. Amongst Shelley's fragmentary essays is one upon "A System of Government by Juries -a singular speculation," as Mr. Rossetti naturally remarks. But the explanation is simply that Godwin's theory, worked out in the "Political Justice," sets forth government by these so-called juries as the ultimate or penultimate stage of human society. Shelley, like a faithful disciple, was writing an incipient commen- a revered philosopher. tary upon one of his teacher's texts. It admits of more doubt whether GodThe fragmentary Essay on Christian-win possessed in any marked degree the ity," of about the same date (1815), is positive qualification of high reasoning virtually an attempt to show that the valua- power. What is called "remorseless ble part of the Christian religion is its logic " - the ruthless sweeping aside of supposed anticipation of Godwin's charac- every consideration that conflicts with our teristic tenets. But the coincidence does deductions from certain assumptions — is not consist in any minute points of external as often a proof of weakness as of strength. resemblance. Godwin's political writings Nothing is so easy as to be perfectly symseem to have been pretty well forgotten, metrical and consistent, if you will calmly though some interest in him is maintained accept every paradox that flows from your by "Caleb Williams" and by his rela- principles, and call it a plain conclusion tionship to Shelley. Hogg is evidently instead of a reductio ad absurdum. A anxious to sink as much as possible the man who is quite ready to say that black intellectual obligations of the disciple to is white whenever the whiteness of black so second-rate a teacher; and later writers is convenient for his argument, may easily upon Shelley are content to speak vaguely pass with some people for a great reasoner. of Godwin as a man who had some philo- Godwin, however, was beyond question a sophic reputation in his day, and some in- man of considerable power, though neither