In the meantime I became, in the popular sense of the word "God," an atheist. I printed a pamphlet, avowing my opinion and its occasion. I distributed this anonymously to men of thought and learning, wishing that reason should decide on the case at issue; it was never my intention to deny it. Mr. Coplestone, at Oxford, among others, had the pamphlet; he showed it to the Master and the Fellows of University College, and I was sent for. I was informed that in case I denied the publication no more would be said. I refused and was expelled.

It will be necessary, in order to elucidate this part of my history, to inform you that I am heir by entail to an estate of £6000 per annum. My principles have induced me to regard the law of primogeniture an evil of primary magnitude. My father's notions of family honour are incoincident with my knowledge of public good. I will never sacrifice the latter to any consideration. My father has ever regarded me as a blot, a defilement of his honour. He wished to induce me by poverty to accept of some commission in a distant regiment, and in the interim of my absence to prosecute the pamphlet, that a process of outlawry might make the estate, on his death, devolve on my younger brother. These are the leading points in the history of the man before you. Others exist, but I have thought proper to make some selection; not that it is my design to conceal or extenuate any part, but that I should by their enumeration quite outstep the bounds of modesty. Now it is for you to judge whether, by permitting me to cultivate your friendship, you are exhibiting yourself more really useful than by the pursuance of those avocations of which the time spent in allowing this cultivation would deprive you. I am now earnestly pursuing studious habits. I am writing "An Enquiry into the causes of the failure of the French Revolution to benefit mankind." My plan is that of resolving to lose no opportunity to disseminate truth and happiness.

I am married to a woman whose views are similar to my own. To you, as the regulator and former of my mind, I must ever look with real respect and veneration.

Commenting on this in his Life of Shelley, Hogg says: "Shelley's letters to William Godwin must be received with

caution; the young poet saw events through the spectacles of his pregnant and prurient fancy, and not as they really were. He was altogether incapable of rendering an account of any transaction whatsoever according to the strict and precise truth, and the bare, naked realities of actual life ; not through an addiction to falsehood, which he cordially detested, but because he was the creature, the unsuspecting and unresisting victim, of his irresistible imagination.” Hogg proceeds to point out examples of this tendency in the letter quoted. Regarding the statement: "I was informed that in case I denied the publication no more would be said," Hogg says, "No such offer was made . . . but, musing on the affair, as he was wont, he dreamed that the proposal had been declined by him, and thus he had the gratification of believing that he was more a martyr than he really was." Hogg notes other misstatements: "He never published anything controversial at Eton; he was never expelled. . . . No offer of a commission in the army was ever made to Bysshe; it is only in a dream that the prose cution, outlawry, and devolution of the estate could find a place." The same tendency to the imaginative amplification of facts is illustrated in the account which Shelley gave to Peacock of his expulsion. According to this account, "his expulsion was a matter of great form and solemnity; there was a sort of public assembly, before which he pleaded his own cause, in a long oration, in the course of which he called on the illustrious spirits who had shed glory on those walls to look down on their degenerate successors."

Various literary plans engaged Shelley's attention during the months which followed his marriage most of them not, at this time, realized. He was eager to contribute some practical help towards the improvement of humanity. The agitation in Ireland on behalf of "Catholic emancipation" seemed to afford an opportunity, and he prepared an ad

dress to the Catholics of Ireland. The address, he says to Godwin,

consists of the benevolent and tolerant deductions of philosophy reduced into the simplest language, and such as those who by their uneducated poverty are most susceptible of evil impressions from Catholicism may clearly comprehend. I know it can do no harm; it cannot excite rebellion, as its main principle is to trust the success of a cause to the energy of its truth. It cannot "widen the breach between the kingdoms," as it attempts to convey to the vulgar mind sentiments of universal philanthropy; and, whatever impressions it may produce, they can be no others but those of peace and harmony; it owns no religion but benevolence, no cause but virtue, no party but the world. I shall devote myself with unremitting zeal, as far as the uncertain state of health will permit, towards forwarding the great ends of virtue and happiness in Ireland, regarding, as I do, the present state of that country's affairs as an opportunity which if I, being thus disengaged, permit to pass unoccupied, I am unworthy the character which I have assumed.

In the desire, then, to take some active part in forwarding the progress of humanity, Shelley, accompanied by his wife. and Miss Westbrook, left Keswick for Dublin, where he arrived on February 12, 1812. Whilst sympathizing with the movement for Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the union, he regarded these as intrinsically matters of small moment, except in so far as they were initial steps towards a far wider movement which should include not Ireland merely, but the world, and should culminate in the abolition of all government and of all class distinctions. In harmony with this view, his Address is not really political; it does not consider what are the immediate measures especially adapted to the situation of Ireland; it is an exhortation to tolerance, sobriety, wisdom, and kindliness. In its writer's opinion, 'political reform was to be attained through the reform of

individuals. What Shelley urged was that each Irishman should set about reforming himself. In the Address, the main object of touching upon emancipation and repeal appears to be that the author may thereby gain the ear of the reader for higher and broader themes.

The pamphlet was printed in the cheapest style; the price was five pence; it was also distributed gratis by the author. "For two days," he writes to Miss Hitchener, "I have omitted writing to you, but each day has been filled up with the employment of disseminating the doctrines of philanthropy and freedom. I have already sent four hundred of my little pamphlets into the world, and they have excited a sensation of wonder in Dublin; eleven hundred yet remain for distribution. Copies have been sent to sixty public houses. No prosecution is yet attempted. I do not see how it can be. Congratulate me, my friend, for everything proceeds well. I could not expect more rapid success." Again: "I send a man out every day to distribute copies, with instructions how and where to give them. . . . I stand on the balcony of our window and watch till I see a man who looks likely; I throw a book to him." The tone of Shelley's letter may be compared with that of Harriet, who also writes to Miss Hitchener: "I am sure you would laugh were you to see us give the pamphlets. We throw them out of the window and give them to men we pass in the streets. For myself, I am ready to die of laughter when it is done, and Percy looks so grave. Yesterday he put one into a woman's hood of a cloak; she knew nothing of it, and we passed her. I could hardly get on, my muscles were so irritated.”

A second pamphlet was printed, proposing the formation of an association whose immediate object should be Catholic emancipation, but whose ultimate aim was to be the destruction of all grievances, political and moral. Shelley also

spoke at a great public meeting in which O'Connell and other leaders took a prominent part. But his visionary expectations of reforming the Irish or of solving the Irish question were, of course, destined to disappointment. In not even the slightest degree did he produce the effects which he had anticipated; and he abandoned his attempt even more speedily than he had undertaken it. He writes: "The association proceeds slowly, and I fear will not be established. Prejudices are so violent in contradiction to my principles, that more hate me as a freethinker than love me as a votary of freedom." He was further discouraged by Godwin's disapproval of his premature interference in practical politics; and after a seven weeks' stay in Ireland set sail for England on April 4th.

The twelve months which followed formed a period of wanderings hither and thither. Political questions continued to occupy a large part of his attention, and the outspoken radicalism of some of his printed pamphlets, especially of A Declaration of Rights, which he purposed to distribute among the peasantry, led to his being put under surveillance by the authorities. In the village of Lynmouth, on the coast of Devon, he was accustomed, in company with Miss Hitchener (who had now joined the household) to launch upon the sea boxes fitted with masts and sails containing copies of his pamphlets. Bottles were used for the same purpose, and even fire-balloons were sent skyward to spread his ideas for the amelioration of the world. He employed a servant, Dan Healy, to post up copies of the Declaration of Rights in the neighboring town of Barnstaple. Healy was arrested, in consequence, and imprisoned for six months, Shelley doing all in his power to alleviate the hapless victim's fate. Later, Shelley took up his abode in the little Welsh town of Tremadoc, where he became deeply interested in a work which was being carried on by a gentle