ABSTRACT
We have now entered on a period of which the interest mainly depends on the correspondence which has been preserved. The life which Godwin led was singularly barren of events; his opinions and his habits were stereotyped. It is true that he made new friends, and there are constant indications that many persons, especially young and enthusiastic men, sat at his feet and gained from him kindliest counsel in difficulties mental and other. But he had ceased to throw himself eagerly into the questions of the day, and the stem need of winning his bread forced him more and more to such literary work as would pay. That his views were unchanged, however, is clear from an interesting letter to him from his friend Fell, whom he had reproached for apparent untruth to the principles of the French Revolution. Fell says that he had denounced the excesses of Robespierre and Marat, while admitting the excellence of that for which they had originally contended. Godwin’s position seems to have been that the work was so good, and the principles so true, that to remark the crimes, however gross, of individuals, is to seek for specks on the sun. Whatever may be thought of the argument, it is evidence that Godwin in no degree shrunk from the views of his youth, or from carrying them out to what he considered their legitimate conclusion.
