Thoughts on Man | Page 3

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THOUGHTS ON MAN HIS NATURE, PRODUCTIONS AND
DISCOVERIES INTERSPERSED WITH SOME PARTICULARS
RESPECTING THE AUTHOR by WILLIAM GODWIN

Oh, the blood more stirs To rouse a lion, than to start a hare!
SHAKESPEARE

LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 1831.
PREFACE
In the ensuing volume I have attempted to give a defined and
permanent form to a variety of thoughts, which have occurred to my
mind in the course of thirty-four years, it being so long since I
published a volume, entitled, the Enquirer,--thoughts, which, if they
have presented themselves to other men, have, at least so far as I am
aware, never been given to the public through the medium of the press.
During a part of this period I had remained to a considerable degree
unoccupied in my character of an author, and had delivered little to the
press that bore my name.--And I beg the reader to believe, that, since I

entered in 1791 upon that which may be considered as my vocation in
life, I have scarcely in any instance contributed a page to any periodical
miscellany.
My mind has been constitutionally meditative, and I should not have
felt satisfied, if I had not set in order for publication these special fruits
of my meditations. I had entered upon a certain career; and I held it for
my duty not to abandon it.
One thing further I feel prompted to say. I have always regarded it as
my office to address myself to plain men, and in clear and
unambiguous terms. It has been my lot to have occasional intercourse
with some of those who consider themselves as profound, who deliver
their oracles in obscure phraseology, and who make it their boast that
few men can understand them, and those few only through a process of
abstract reflection, and by means of unwearied application.
To this class of the oracular I certainly did not belong. I felt that I had
nothing to say, that it should be very difficult to understand. I resolved,
if I could help it, not to "darken counsel by words without knowledge."
This was my principle in the Enquiry concerning Political Justice. And
I had my reward. I had a numerous audience of all classes, of every age,
and of either sex. The young and the fair did not feel deterred from
consulting my pages.
It may be that that book was published in a propitious season. I am told
that nothing coming from the press will now be welcomed, unless it
presents itself in the express form of amusement. He who shall propose
to himself for his principal end, to draw aside in one particular or
another the veil from the majesty of intellectual or moral truth, must lay
his account in being received with little attention.
I have not been willing to believe this: and I publish my speculations
accordingly. I have aimed at a popular, and (if I could reach it) an
interesting style; and, if I am thrust aside and disregarded, I shall
console myself with believing that I have not neglected what it was in
my power to achieve.
One characteristic of the present publication will not fail to offer itself
to the most superficial reader. I know many men who are misanthropes,
and profess to look down with disdain on their species. My creed is of
an opposite character. All that we observe that is best and most
excellent in the intellectual world, is man: and it is easy to perceive in

many cases, that the believer in mysteries does little more, than dress
up his deity in the choicest of human attributes and qualifications. I
have lived among, and I feel an ardent interest in and love for, my
brethren of mankind. This sentiment, which I regard with complacency
in my own breast, I would gladly cherish in others. In such a cause I am
well pleased to enrol myself a missionary.
February 15, 1831.
The particulars respecting the author, referred to in the title-page, will
be