Part 17 (1/2)
He was as cold in his conduct as in his philosophy He maintained in the various relations of life an imperturbable calmness But it was not that of a Goethe, who kno to harmonize passion and intellect; it was that of a man in whom the former is an unknown quantity He was always methodical in his work Great as his interest in his subjectvigils spent wrestling with thought, or days and weeks passed alone and locked in his study that nothing ht interfere with the flow of ideas, unless, as happened occasionally, he orking against time He wrote from nine till one, and then, when he found his brain confused by this a hours Literary composition was undertaken by hiht devote hi His moral code was characterized by the same cool calculation He had early decided that usefulness to his fellow-creatures was the only thing whichIt is doubtful whether any other hu this object as he did He writes of himself:--
”Noa practice conformable toreasonable ground of offence to any other person I was anxious not to spend a penny on ine calculated to render me a more capable servant of the public; and as I was averse to the expenditure of money, so I was not inclined to earn it but in small portions I considered the disbursement of money for the benefit of others as a very difficult problem, which he who has the possession of it is bound to solve in the best ement to any one to acquire it who has it not The plan, therefore, I resolved on was leisure,--a leisure to be employed in deliberate composition, and in the pursuit of such attainments as afforded me the most pro at ho uppereneral benefit”
He was equally uncos towards his friends were always ruled by his sense of justice He was the first to come forith substantial help in their hour of need, but he was also the first to tell theht it his duty to do so His unselfishness is shown in his conduct during the famous state trials, in which Holcroft, his hly prized acquaintances, were accused of high treason His boldly avowed revolutionary principles made him a marked man, but he did all that was in his power to defend the Chronicle” his unqualified opinion of the atrocity of the proceedings against thehout the trials he stood by the side of the prisoners, though by so doing he ran the risk of being arrested with them But if his friends asked his assistance when it did not seem to hi it A Jewby name, at whose house he dined frequently, was arrested on soe connected with his business He appealed to Godwin to appear in court and give evidence in his favor; whereupon the latter wrote to hi that he declined because he could not conscientiously attest to his, the Jew's, moral character There was no ill-will on his part, and he continued to dine arossed as he ith his oork, he could still find time to read a manuscript for Mrs Inchbald, or a play for Holcroft, but when he did so, he was very plain-spoken in pointing out their faults He incurred the forrammatical errors in a story she had submitted to him, and he deeply wounded the latter by his une-hammer of criticism,” Holcroft said to him on this occasion, ”describe it [the play] as absolutely contemptible, tell me it must be damned, or, if it should escape, that it cannot survive five nights” Yet his affection for Holcroft was unwavering The conflicting results to which his honesty soly set forth in his relations to Thomas Cooper, a distant cousin, who at one time lived with him as pupil He studied attentively the boy's character, and did his utently and kindly, but, on the other hand, he expressed in his presence his opinion of hination It is more than probable that this same frankness was one of the causes of his many quarrels--_demeles_, he calls them in his diary--with his most devoted friends His sincerity, however, invariably triu storms
He was passionless even in relations which usually arouse warood son and brother, yet so undemonstrative that his h in beliefs and sentiments he had drifted far apart from his mother, he never let this fact interfere with his filial respect and duty; and her long andkindness for her Men ainst her ood lady had occasion to object to his coldness In one of her letters she asks him why he cannot call her ”Honored Mother” as well as ”Mada navely that ”it would be full as agreeable” He was alilling to look out for the welfare of his brothers, two of ere somewhat disreputable characters, and of his sister Hannah, who lived in London With the latter he was on particularly friendly terms, and saw much of her, yet Mrs Sothren--the cousin who had been such a help to hi of her as ”Miss Godwin”
instead of ”sister,” and fears lest this reat, had abated
He seeht that he could provide hied his other affairs He i such a relationshi+p, love was no more indispensable than a heroine was to the interest of a novel He proposed that his sister Hannah should choose a wife for hi with his request In a spirit as business-like as his, she decided upon a friend, calculated she was sure to meet his requireht write a recooverness or a cook Her letter on the subject is so unique, and it is so impossible that it should have been written to any one but Godwin, that it is orth while quoting part of it She sent him a note of introduction to the lady in question, who, she writes,--
” is in every sense formed tovoice, hich she accoment She has an easy politeness in her ood housekeeper and a good econoenerous disposition As to her internal accohly of theood nature and huion as my William likes, struck me with a wish that she was e of her fortune, but that I leave for you to learn I only know her father has been s in 500 or 600 per annum, and Miss Gay is his only child”
Not even this report could kindle the philosophical William into warmth
He waited on, and when he finally saw her, he failed to be enraptured according to Hannah's expectations ”Poor Miss Gay,” as the Godwins subsequently called her, never received a second visit
When it ca depended upon himself, and that he could not be led by his sister's choice, satisfactory as it ht be That he should for a mo, because he afterwards showed himself to be not only fond of the society of wo it His women friends were all fae he was on terms of intimacy with Mrs
Inchbald, with Amelia Alderson, soon to become Mrs Opie, and with the beautiful Mrs Reveley, whose interest in politics and desire for knowledge were to hireater char his unimpassioned nature, Williaa, to voluntarily blind himself to feminine beauty
Indeed, there must have been beneath all his coldness a substraturee the power of s The man who can command the affection of others, and enter into their emotions, must kno to feel himself It was for more than his intellect that he was loved by e and Laht after by beautiful and clever wo men, and yet he invariably made friends with those who came under his influence Willis Webb and Thomas Cooper, who, in his earlier London life, lived with hiave hieneration, youthful enthusiasts, of whom Bulwer and Shelley are the most notable, looked upon Godwin as the chief apostle in the cause of hu hi hih his works or by reading his biography, cannot altogether understand hoas that he thus attracted and held the affections of so many men and women But the truth is that, while Godas naturally a man of an uncommonly cold temperament, much of his emotional insensibility was artificially produced by his puritanical training He was perfectly honest when in his philosophy of life he banished the passions fro eht hi from his own experience, failed to appreciate its i the course of huht into personal contact with him felt that beneath his passive exterior there was at least the possibility of passion Mary Wollstonecraft was the first to develop this possibility into certainty, and to arouse Godwin to a consciousness of its existence She revolutionized not only his life, but his social doctrines Through her he discovered the flaw in his arguments, and then honestly confessed his mistake to the world A few years after her death he wrote in the Introduction to ”St Leon:”--
” I think it necessary to say on the present occasionthat for more than four years I have been anxious for opportunity and leisure to modify some of the earlier chapters of that work [”Political Justice”] in conformity to the sentiments inculcated in this Not that I see cause tothe principle of justice, or anything else fundamental to the system there delivered; but that I apprehend domestic and private affections inseparable from the nature of man, and from what may be styled the culture of the heart, and am fully persuaded that they are not incompatible with a profound and active sense of justice in the mind of him that cherishes them”
When Godwin met Mary, after her desertion by Ior of his intellect, and in the height of his fame She was thirty-seven, only three years his junior She was the cleverest worief had ly handsos, acquired what she calls in her ”Rights of Women” a _physionoone with them, had never approached the depth oftook place in the month of January, 1796, shortly after Mary had returned from her travels in the North Miss Hayes invited Godwin to co when Mary expected to be there He accepted her invitation without hesitation, but evinced no great eagerness
”I will doon you Friday,” he wrote, ”and shall be happy to meet Mrs Wollstonecraft, of whom I know not that I ever said a word of har e in me the reality of a habit upon which I pique myself, that I speak of the qualities of others uninfluenced by personal considerations, and am as prompt to do justice to an ene was more propitious than their first some few years earlier had been Godwin had, with others, heard her sad story, and felt sorry for her, and perhaps admired her for her bold practical application of his principles This was better than the positive dislike hich she had once inspired hiative He would probably never have ht of him has not been recorded But she must have been favorably impressed, for when she came back to London froings in Somer's Town He, in the iven hiher respect for her talents The inaccuracies and the roughness of style which had displeased him in her earlier works had disappeared There was no fault to be found with the book, but much to be said in its praise
Once she had pleased hian to discover her other attractions, and to enjoy being with her Her conversation, instead of wearying hiht her forward and conceited, but succureat these were can be learned fro description of her character written by Mrs Shelley, who obtained her knowledge from her mother's intimate acquaintances She says:--
”Mary Wollstonecraft was one of those beings who appear once perhaps in a generation to gild humanity with a ray which no difference of opinion nor chance of circuenius was undeniable She had been bred in the hard school of adversity, and having experienced the sorrows entailed on the poor and the oppressed, an earnest desire was kindled in her to di, her intrepidity, her sensibility and eager sys with force and truth, and endowed thehtens She was one whom all loved who had ever seen her Many years are passed since that beating heart has been laid in the cold, still grave, but no one who has ever seen her speaks of her without enthusiastic veneration Did she witness an act of injustice, she came boldly forward to point it out and induce its reparation; was there discord between friends or relatives, she stood by the weaker party, and by her earnest appeals and kindliness awoke latent affection, and healed all wounds 'Open as day to enerous affection, yearning for sympathy, she had fallen on evil days, and her life had been one course of hardshi+p, poverty, lonely struggle, and bitter disappointment
”Godwin ratitude of one utterly incapable of appreciating her excellence; who had stolen her heart, and availed hienerosity and lofty independence of character, to plunge her in difficulties and then desert her
Difficulties, worldly difficulties, indeed, she set at naught, coood, her confidence betrayed, and when once she could conquer the led cheerfully to meet the poverty that was her inheritance, and to do her duty by her darling child”
Godwin now began to see her frequently She had established herself in roo Street, Pentonville, where she was very near him They met often at the houses of Miss Hayes, Mr Johnson, and other mutual friends Her interests and tastes were the sanized hts were sothis year was comparatively small None of the other women he knew and adet to reason out his conduct as she did He really had at one ti Amelia Alderson his wife, but this, for so an iestion from his mind and continued the friend he had been before Had Mrs Reveley been single he ht have allowed himself to love her, as he did later, when he was a er and she aBut so long as her husband was alive, and he knew he had no right to do so, he, with perfect equaniulated his affection to suit the circuainst his love for Mary Wollstonecraft It sprang fro passion before he had paused to deliberate as to its advisability
As for Mary, Godwin's friendshi+p co just when it did was an inestimable service Never in all her life had she needed sympathy as she did then She was virtually alone Her friends were kind, but their kindness could not quite take the place of the individual love she craved Iiven it to her for a while, and her short-lived happiness with him made her present loneliness seem more unendurable Her separation from him really dated back to the time when she left Havre
Her affection for hiht because she had struggled bravely to retain it for the sake of her child The gayety and many distractions of London life could not drown her heart's wretchedness It was through Godwin that she becaland, to life, and to herself He revived her enthusiasm and renewed her interest in the world and ave her that special devotion without which she but half lived In the restlessness that followed her loss of Imlay's love, she had resolved to make the tour of Italy or Switzerland Therefore when she had returned to London, expecting it to be but a tes ”Noever,” as Godwin says in his Meland, probably without exactly knohy this change had taken place in her mind” She moved to other rooms in the extremity of Somer's Town, and filled them with the furniture she had used in Store Street in the first days of her prosperity, and which had since been packed away The unpacking of this furniture ith her what the removal of eeds is with other women Her first love had perished; but fro of autu's blosso the value of that death which yields higher fruition
In July, Godwin left London and spent the month in Norfolk Absence from Mary made him realize more than he had hitherto done that she had become indispensable to his happiness She was constantly in his thoughts The more he meditated upon her, the more he appreciated her There was less pleasure in his excursion than in the lad to be together again; nor did they hesitate to ladness evident At the end of three weeks they had confessed to each other that they could no longer live apart Henceforward their lines must be cast in the same places Godwin's story of their courtshi+p is eloquent in its simplicity It is almost impossible to believe that it ritten by the author of ”Political Justice”
”The partiality we conceived for each other,” he explains, ”was in that arded as the purest and reith equal advances in the mind of each It would have been impossible for the most minute observer to have said as before, and as after One sex did not take the priority which long-established custom has awarded it, nor the other overstep that delicacy which is so severely imposed I am not conscious that either party can assuent or the patient, the toil-spreader or the prey, in the affair When, in the course of things, the disclosure ca, in a manner, for either party to disclose to the other It was friendshi+pinto love”