“We have been in this place eight days, and, had I time, the description of what I have already seen would be certainly more than sufficient to fill eight pages. But it is not my present intention to say anything on this subject, except to remark that though there may be few essential differences in the morals, or great outlines of behaviour in two nations, yet the numberless little particulars produce so striking an effect upon the eye and imagination, and we are so apt to wonder and laugh at what we are not accustomed to, that for some few days young and unpracticed persons might imagine themselves suddenly transported to another, and, certainly not in their opinion, to a better world.
“I received your second volume, and made enquiries immediately
after my arrival, but have not yet met with any person who could give me
sufficient information relative to the translating and publishing it in the
German language. I think it right to tell you that Louisa and Fanny have
read the two volumes, and are both of opinion that Leon is a second Falkland,
but much his inferior. I was present when Louisa several
times laid down the book to exclaim against his feeble and absurd conduct, to
which I made no reply whatever. But it was a consolation to me to find they
were both delighted with Marguerite. They
think, however, there is by no means the same degree of interest created as
that which they felt in reading ‘Caleb Williams.’ I inform you of this
because
| 314 | WILLIAM GODWIN |
“I was somewhat moved, and rather surprized at the
note included in the parcel. You reproach me for not having consulted you on my
travelling plan, which you say you have always disapproved and loathed. I have
been frequently amazed at your forgetfulness, but never more than in the
present instance. It is full two years, I believe indeed much more, since I
first conceived the project. I spoke of it frequently, and I dare affirm
oftener to you than to any other person. I cannot recollect whether you then
made any objections, but had they been very serious and pointed they would
surely have been attended to, and not forgotten. My reasons, however, I think
you have already heard, and when again brought to your recollection will
scarcely be thought feeble. I had a house and establishment, which, my family
being dispersed, were a heavy and unnecessary expense; my debts were great, and
several of them of so long standing that I remembered them with a poignant
anxiety, neither were my creditors, however they might forbear to dun me,
entirely satisfied. These debts could only be discharged by the sale of my
effects, and the breaking up of what was become in my opinion an immoral
establishment, to support which I subjected myself to unnecessary labours,
turmoils, and obligations. Persecuted at the Theatre as I continually have been
from the appearance of ‘Love’s Frailties’, whenever a piece was known to be
mine, what could I do better than disappear from the scene, and no longer
excite malice or anger, call it which you will, that I could not appease? This
was my train of thoughts, this train of thinking you have often witnessed, and
in it, in my apprehension, you have acquiesced. That I was the first to
recommend, both in language and practice, an unreserved communication, I well
remember, and though certainly it has not existed between us of late in the
same high and unspeakably gratifying degree it once did, its decline as far as
I am a judge did not begin with me. This decline had I think two marked and
decisive periods. The first was that which immediately preceded your marriage,
and the second the lament-
| LETTERS TO HOLCROFT. | 345 |
