Mrs Shelley | Page 8

old documents. On comparing it
with the contemporary work of his friends, such as Coleridge, it
becomes evident that his knowledge and learning were utilized by them.
But these works were anonymous; by his Political Justice he became
famous. This work is a philosophical treatise based on the assumption,
that man, as a reasoning being, can be guided wholly by reason, and
that, were he educated from this point of view, laws would be
unnecessary. It must be observed here that Godwin could not then take
into consideration the laws of heredity, now better understood; how the
criminal has not only the weight of bad education and surroundings
against him, but also how the very formation of the head is in certain
cases an almost insuperable evil. He considered many of the laws
relating to property, marriage, &c., unnecessary, as people guided by
reason would not, for instance, wish for wealth at the expense of
starving brethren. Far in the distance as the realisation of this doctrine
may seem, it should still be remembered that, as with each physical
discovery, the man of genius must foresee. As Columbus imagined land
where he found America; as a planet is fixed by the astronomer before
the telescope has revealed it to his mortal eye; so in the world of
psychology and morals it is necessary to point out the aim to be
attained before human nature has reached those divine qualifications
which are only shadowed forth here and there by more than usually
elevated natures. In fact Godwin, who sympathised entirely with the
theories of the French Revolution, and even surpassed French ideas on
most subjects, disapproved of the immediate carrying out of these ideas
and views; he wished for preaching and reasoning till people should
gradually become convinced of the truth, and the rich should be as
ready to give as the poor to receive. Even in the matter of marriage,
though strongly opposed to it personally (on philosophical grounds, not
from the ordinary trite reasoning against it), he yielded his opinion to
the claim of individual justice towards the woman whom he came to
love with an undying affection, and for whom, fortunately for his
theories, he needed not to set aside the impulse of affection for that of

justice; and these remarks bring us again to the happy time in the lives
of Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, when friendship melted into love,
and they were married shortly afterwards, in March 1797, at old St.
Pancras Church, London.
This new change in her life interfered no more with the energy for work
with Mary Wollstonecraft than with Godwin. They adopted the singular,
though in their case probably advantageous, decision to continue each
to have a separate place of abode, in order that each might work
uninterruptedly, though, as pointed out by an earnest student of their
character, they probably wasted more time in their constant interchange
of notes on all subjects than they would have lost by a few
conversations. On the other hand, as their thoughts were worth
recording, we have the benefit of their plan. The short notes which
passed between Mary and Godwin, as many as three and four in a day,
as well as letters of considerable length written during a tour which
Godwin made in the midland counties with his friend Basil Montague,
show how deep and simple their affection was, that there was no need
of hiding the passing cloud, that they both equally disliked and wished
to simplify domestic details. There was, for instance, some sort of
slight dispute as to who should manage a plumber, on which occasion
Mary seems to have been somewhat hurt at its being put upon her, as
giving an idea of her inferiority. This, with the tender jokes about
Godwin's icy philosophy, and the references to a little "William" whom
they were both anxiously expecting, all evince the tender devotion of
husband and wife, whose relationship was of a nature to endure through
ill or good fortune. Little Fanny was evidently only an added pleasure
to the two, and Godwin's thought of her at a distance and his choice of
the prettiest mug at Wedgewood's with "green and orange-tawny
flowers," testify to the fatherly instinct of Godwin. But, alas! this
loving married friendship was not to last long, for the day arrived,
August 30, 1797, which had been long expected; and the hopeful state
of the case is shown in three little letters written by Mary to her
husband, for she wished him to be spared anxiety by absence. And
there was born a little girl, not the William so quaintly spoken of; but
the Mary whose future life we must try and realise. Even now her first
trouble comes, for, within a few hours of the child's