Essays. By the late William Godwin. (H. S. King.)—These essay
were written in the latter years of Mr. Godwin's life, and were left by him nearly ready for publication. It was his wish that they should be revised and put forth by his daughter, Mrs. Shelley. This wish Mrs Shelley was unwilling or unable to fulfil. Her representatives now fulfil it, looking upon such fulfilment as a duty "from which, even had they desired it, there was no escape." With this view of duty we do not agree. It cannot be an inevitable duty of representatives to carry out wishes of which they do not recognise the propriety. As for the Essays, it would have been far better to leave them in MS. The world would have lost nothing ; the reputation of the author would have stood all the higher. The Essays are an assault on Christianity, but an assault. delivered under conditions which no longer exist. The controversy has so entirely changed its ground, that the arguments here advanced have become absolutely obsolete. William Godwin, with all his ability, was not qualified, even according to the lights of his own time, to be entitled to any very careful hearing on this subject ; as it is, what he has to say is all but valueless. "All but," we say, allowing something for the editor's remark that these essays "are interesting, as the frankly expressed thoughts of a remarkable man, and as a contribution to the history of scepticism." Frankly expressed. they are indeed, not only as to their thorough-going scepticism, of which indeed we are not disposed to complain, but as to the extraordinary vanity which they reveal. Mr. Godwin was evidently of opinion that it only needed his appearance, and all the degrading superstitions which Christianity had introduced would vanish. "It is presumed," he says, about half-way through the book, "that no person of a sound under- standing and an impartial mind can have read the preceding essays, and then entertain the slightest idea of the divine and supernatural origin of the Christian religion." Yet this belief has survived even Mr. Godwin, just as a kindred belief has continued to exist, even though "the celebrated 3Ir. Woolston has satisfactorily exposed one by one the
miracles of Jesus, and particularly the crowning miracle of his own resurrection." Really it is not worth while now-a-days to waste paper and print on disquisitions which thus sum up the benefits of 'Christianity :—"It has probably been of some service to mankind, as having in a certain degree sharpened our intellectual faculties by the appetite for disputation, and the lust for creeds and articles. This is. perhaps, the whole that can be justly conceded."
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