Caleb Williams | Page 3

to death and ruins
his tenant, a man of integrity, by means of the law. This is the occasion
of Falkland's original crime. His more heinous offence, the
abandonment of the innocent Hawkinses to the gallows, is the
consequence of what Godwin expressly denounces, punishment for
murder. "I conceived it to be in the highest degree absurd and
iniquitous, to cut off a man qualified for the most essential and
extensive utility, merely out of retrospect to an act which, whatever

were its merits, could not be retrieved." Then a new element is
imported into the train of causation, Caleb's insatiable curiosity, and the
strife begins between these well-matched antagonists, the man of
wealth and station utilizing all the advantages granted him by the state
of society to crush his enemy. Godwin, then, was justified in declaring
that his book comprehended "a general view of the modes of domestic
and unrecorded despotism by which man becomes the destroyer of
man." Such were the words of the original preface, which was
suppressed for a short time owing to the fears caused by the trial of
Horne Tooke, Thomas Holcroft and other revolutionists, with whom
Godwin was in profound sympathy. Had he intended "Caleb Williams,"
however, from its first inception, to be an imaginative version of the
"Political Justice," he would have had to invent a different plan and
different characters. The arguments of a sociological novel lack
cogency unless the characters are fairly representative of average
mankind. Godwin's principal actors are both, to say the least,
exceptional. They are lofty idealizations of certain virtues and powers
of mind. Falkland is like Jean Valjean, a superhuman creature; and,
indeed, "Caleb Williams" may well be compared on one side with "Les
Misérables," for Victor Hugo's avowed purpose, likewise, was the
denunciation of social tyranny. But the characteristics that would have
weakened the implied theorem, had such been the main object, are the
very things that make the novel more powerful as drama of a grandiose,
spiritual kind. The high and concentrated imagination that created such
a being as Falkland, and the intensity of passion with which Caleb's
fatal energy of mind is sustained through that long, despairing struggle,
are of greater artistic value than the mechanical symmetry by which
morals are illustrated.
E. A. B.

PREFACE
BY THE AUTHOR.
The following narrative is intended to answer a purpose more general
and important than immediately appears upon the face of it. The
question now afloat in the world respecting THINGS AS THEY ARE
is the most interesting that can be presented to the human mind. While
one party pleads for reformation and change, the other extols in the

warmest terms the existing constitution of society. It seemed as if
something would be gained for the decision of this question if that
constitution were faithfully developed in its practical effects. What is
now presented to the public is no refined and abstract speculation; it is
a study and delineation of things passing in the moral world. It is but of
late that the inestimable importance of political principles has been
adequately apprehended. It is now known to philosophers that the spirit
and character of the Government intrudes itself into every rank of
society. But this is a truth highly worthy to be communicated to
persons whom books of philosophy and science are never likely to
reach. Accordingly, it was proposed, in the invention of the following
work, to comprehend, as far as the progressive nature of a single story
would allow, a general review of the modes of domestic and
unrecorded despotism by which man becomes the destroyer of man. If
the author shall have taught a valuable lesson, without subtracting from
the interest and passion by which a performance of this sort ought to be
characterised, he will have reason to congratulate himself upon the
vehicle he has chosen.
May 12, 1794.
This preface was withdrawn in the original edition, in compliance with
the alarms of booksellers. "Caleb Williams" made his first appearance
in the world in the same month in which the sanguinary plot broke out
against the liberties of Englishmen, which was happily terminated by
the acquittal of its first intended victims in the close of that year. Terror
was the order of the day; and it was feared that even the humble
novelist might be shown to be constructively a traitor.
October 29, 1795.

AUTHOR'S LATEST PREFACE.
LONDON,
November 20, 1832.
"CALEB WILLIAMS" has always been regarded by the public with an
unusual degree of favour. The proprietor of "THE STANDARD

NOVELS" has therefore imagined that even an account of the
concoction and mode of writing of the work would be viewed with
some interest.
I finished the "Enquiry concerning Political Justice," the first work
which may be considered as written by