concerned himself. He had written a little pamphlet to show that there were no proofs of the existence of a deity. This he entitled The Necessity of Atheism; he added a preface, claiming that the desire for truth was the author's only motive for publishing, and expressing the hope that any reader who might be able to meet the arguments, would do so. The pamphlet was advertised for sale, and copies were sent to university dignitaries and other prominent personages. It was anonymous, but rumor ascribed the authorship tọ Shelley. He was summoned before the college authorities, refused either to acknowledge or deny the authorship, and was expelled. Hogg, of his own accord, went before the authorities to protest against Shelley's condemnation, and involved himself in the same penalty. On the morning of March the twenty-sixth, 1811, the two friends quitted Oxford. They proceeded to London, took lodgings together, and for a short time continued their walking, talking, and reading, much as before their expulsion. This, however, could not last long; both were dependent on their parents, who, it need scarcely be said, did not regard their conduct with approval. Shelley's father commanded him to break off all communications with Hogg, to return home, and place himself under the care and instruction of such a person as his father might select. Shelley refused to comply. In a few weeks Hogg had to leave for York, where he was to study law, and his companion was left in comparative loneliness. Two of Shelley's sisters were at school in the suburbs, at Clapham; there Shelley frequently visited them, and, young though they were, attempted to indoctrinate them with some of his peculiar views. Among their schoolmates was a certain Harriet Westbrook, not yet sixteen, and endowed with marked personal attractions. She had regular features, an exquisite complexion, symmetrical form, and graceful movements. Her father was a retired coffee-house keeper, well-to-do in the world. Her mother seems to have been an incapable sort of person; and an elder sister, Eliza, almost twice Harriet's age, exercised over her the care and influence which naturally belong to a mother. Shelley had already, earlier in the year, become acquainted with the younger sister, and now the acquaintance ripened into intimacy. Harriet did not share in the horror with which the other girls at Mrs. Fenning's school looked upon the atheist, and she was, in consequence, exposed to some petty persecutions. Her elder sister, also, showed sympathy with Shelley and interest in his doctrines, and he became a not infrequent visitor at their home in London. It is not improbable that matrimonial views in regard to Harriet lay at the bottom of Eliza's encouragement of Shelley. "Her father," too, as Shelley notices, "is civil to me, very strangely." But as far as can be judged, ideas of love and marriage were not consciously present in Shelley's mind. Harriet was to him an interesting disciple, a young soul to be brought into that illumination which he himself enjoyed. Meanwhile, through the intervention of a maternal uncle and the good offices of the Duke of Norfolk, who was a sort of patron and friend to Timothy Shelley, an accommodation was effected between father and son. The latter was to receive an allowance of £200 a year, and was left to do as he pleased with respect to place of abode. He returned to Field Place, but found the surroundings uncongenial. "I am a perfect hermit," he says in a letter, “not a being to speak with! I sometimes exchange a word with my mother on the subject of the weather, upon which she is irresistibly eloquent; otherwise all is deep silence! I wander about this place, walking all over the grounds, with no particular object in view." Again: "It is most true that the mass of mankind are Christians only in name; their religion has no reality. . . .. Certain members of my family are no more Christians than Epicurus himself was; the discanonisation of this saint of theirs is impossible until something more worthy of devotion is pointed out; but where eyes are shut, nothing can be seen. They would ask, Are we wrong to regard the opinion of the world? what would compensate us for the loss of it? Good heavens, what a question! Is it not to be answered by a word? So I have little of their confidence." His eldest sister Elizabeth, whom he had hoped to win over to his peculiar views, and, in his daydreams, had designed for Hogg, cared more for amusements and worldly advantage than for truth and philosophy. She received with contempt or aversion her brother's teachings as to the evils of legal marriage and the folly of substituting any merely external tie for the true love that binds kindred hearts together. As a partial substitute for companionship with a sympathetic spirit, Shelley maintained a close correspondence, not merely with Hogg, but also with a Miss Hitchener, a schoolmistress whom he had lately met. Miss Hitchener was some thirty years old, angular and swarthy, but of advanced views and deeply interested in those questions, philosophical and political, for which the young enthusiast most cared. She seemed to Shelley an ideal spirit, with that complete understanding of his point of view and that perfect sympathy for which his heart yearned. Their correspondence treated of the widest and profoundest questions, the existence of God, immortality, political and social equality. To Miss Eliza Westbrook, also, and her sister he from time to time addressed letters, though not finding the former wholly to his mind. About the beginning of July, Shelley went to Wales to pass some weeks with a cousin. One motive for this journey may have been the wish to meet the Westbrooks, who intended to spend a part of the summer in the same neighborhood. But Shelley's strongest desire was for the companionship of Hogg; and, as their intercourse was interdicted by his father, he hoped to find, during this absence from home, an opportunity for a clandestine visit. Neither the meeting with the Westbrooks nor that with Hogg took place. The former had already returned to London, and thence came letters from Harriet in quick succession: she was persecuted at home; she must return to school where she was wretched; she had no one to love and was useless in the world; she asked if it would be wrong to put an end to her miserable life. At length came a letter in which she threw herself on Shelley's protection and proposed to fly with him. Shelley Fastened to London, and, after the delay of a week or two, eloped with Harriet to Scotland. In Edinburgh, on August 28, 1811, they were married. It is evident that this connection with Harriet Westbrook the result of cirThere was certainly no was, on Shelley's part, unpremeditated, cumstances, rather than of design. strong passion on his side; he was moved more by the feeling that he was helping a victim of oppression and by the romance of the situation than by the ordinary motives of a love-match. In the letters which passed between him and Hogg during the weeks which immediately preceded the elopement, the question whether legal marriage was or was not permissible to the "illuminated," was discussed. Shelley was in theory opposed to marriage as one of the pernicious. forms of oppression imposed and consecrated by society; Hogg argued, on practical grounds, in favor of the legal tie. To Hogg's arguments Shelley yielded; although, he writes, he does not anticipate being "directly called upon to evince his attachment to either theory." "The ties of love and honor," he says in a letter to his friend, dated August 15, "are doubtless of sufficient strength to bind congenial xxviii souls. Yet the argument of impracticability, and, what is even worse, the disproportionate sacrifice which the female I will explain, however, the circumstances which caused my marriage; these must certainly have caused much conjecture in your mind. Some time ago, when my sister was at Mrs. Fenning's school, she contracted an intimacy with Harriet. At that period I attentively watched over my sister, designing, if possible, to add her to the list of the good, the disinterested, the free. I desired, therefore, to investigate Harriet's character; for which purpose I called upon her, requested to correspond with her, designing that her advancement should keep pace with, and Her ready and frank acceptance possibly accelerate, that of my sister. of my proposal pleased me; and, though with ideas the remotest to those which have led to this conclusion of our intimacy, I continued to correspond with her for some time. The frequency of her letters became greater during my stay in Wales. I answered them; they became interesting. They contained complaints of the irrational conduct of her relatives, and the misery of living where she could love no one. Suicide was with her a favorite theme, and her total uselessness was urged in its defence. This I admitted, supposing she could prove her inutility, and that she was powerless. Her letters became more and more gloomy. At length one assumed a tone of such despair as induced me to quit Wales precipitately. I arrived in London. I was shocked at observing the alteration of her looks. Little did I divine She had become violently attached to me, and feared that I its cause. Prejudice made the confession should not return her attachment. painful. It was impossible to avoid being much affected; I promised to I stayed in London several days, during unite my fate with hers. which she recovered her spirits. I had promised, at her bidding, to come again to London. They endeavored to compel her to return to school where malice and pride embittered every hour. She wrote to me. I came to London. I proposed marriage, for the reasons which I have |