“Dear Godwin,—I have been myself too frequently a grievous delinquent in the article of letter-writing to feel any inclination to reproach my friends when peradventure they have been long silent. But, this is out of the question. I did not expect a speedier answer, for I had anticipated the circumstances which you assign as the causes of your delay.
“An attempt to finish a poem of mine for insertion in
the second volume of the ‘Lyrical Ballads’ has thrown me so fearfully back in my
bread-and-beef occupations, that I shall scarcely be able to justify myself in
putting you to the expense of the few lines which I may be able to scrawl on
the present paper; but some parts in your letter interested me deeply, and I
wished to tell you so. First, then, you know Kemble, and I do not. But my conjectural judgments concerning
his character lead me to persuade an absolute, passive obedience to his
opinions; and this, too, because I would leave to every man his own trade. Your
trade has been in the present instance, 1st, To furnish a wise pleasure to your
fellow-beings in general; and 2dly, to give to Mr Kemble
and his associates the means of themselves delighting that part of your
fellow-beings assembled in a theatre. As to what relates to the first point, I
should be sorry indeed if greater men than Mr Kemble could
induce you to alter a ‘but’ to a ‘yet,’ contrary to
your own convictions. Above all things, an author ought to be sincere to the
public; and when William Godwin stands
in the
| 12 | WILLIAM GODWIN |
“If it be possible, come therefore, and let us discuss every page and every line. The time depends of course on the day fixed for the representation of the piece.
“Now for something which I would fain believe is still
more important, namely the property of your philosophical speculations. Your
second objection, derived from the present ebb of opinion, will be best
answered by the fact that Mackintosh and
his followers have the flow. This is greatly in your
favour, for mankind are at present gross reasoners. They reason in a perpetual
antithesis; Mackintosh is an oracle, and Godwin therefore a fool. Now it is morally
impossible that Mackintosh and the sophists of his school
can retain this opinion. You may well exclaim with Job, ‘O that my
adversary would write a book!’ When he publishes, it will be all
over with him, and then the minds of men will incline strongly to those who
would point out in intellectual perceptions a source of moral progressiveness.
Every man in his heart is in favour of your general principles. A party of
dough-baked democrats of fortune were weary of being dissevered from their
fellow rich men. They want to say something in defence of turning round.
Mackintosh puts that something into their mouths, and
for awhile they will admire and be-praise him. In a little while these men will
have fallen back into the ranks from which they had stepped out, and life is
too
| SYSTEM OF GEOGRAPHY. | 13 |
“I would gladly write any verses, but to a prologue or epilogue I am utterly incompetent. . . . .”
