" The Immortal Godwin"
William Godwin. By George Woodcock. (Porcupine Press. 12s. 6d.) THERE are probably few people who have read any of Godwin's works —over thirty of them are there to read—and he seems to have be- come one of those portentous but shadowy names everybody regards as important without quite knowing why. We come across him, of course, especially when we are concerned with Shelley ; Political justice, We know, caused a terrific hubbub in its day ; we are aware that Caleb- Williams is in the canon of novels ; we remember also that the first words the second Mrs. Godwin addressed to her future husband were : " Is it possible that I behold the immortal Godwin? " And that is all that most people know, unless they have been lucky enough to read Mr. H. N. Brailsford's delightful and brilliantly illuminating Shelley, Godwin and their Circle. Yet the man who lastingly impressed Coleridge, whom Hazlitt was an never behindhand in praising, who so enormously influenced Shelley's ideas and his poetry, ought not to be allowed to fade out in this way, and that is reason enough for welcoming Mr. Wood- cock's book. It cannot be said that this biography is a work of art, or that it sheds much light on ideas ; but it gives all the relevant facts, it is well documented, and is most usefully copious in quota- tions from Godwin's works. Whether, as Mr. Herbert Read suggests in his foreword, it is timely because many of the younger generation are turning away from authoritarian Socialism and seeking liberal Socialism may admit of some doubt, because, though many of God- win's ideas are fecund enough, they are more pleasantly expressed by others, notably Kropotkin. Godwin was born in 1756, so he was nearing forty before he sprang into fame and notoriety with An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Political justice, and its influence on General Virtue and Happi- ness, 1793, which was followed in the next year by Caleb Williams. His meeting with, and eventual marriage to, Mary Wollstonecraft changed many of the ideas expressed in Political Justice (for, after all, family life with Mary Wollstonecraft bore little resemblance to family life in an aridly Sandemanian household) ; but the period of happiness was short. His wife's death in 1797 coincided almost exactly with the turning against him of liberal opinion, with the outburst of contumely which assailed him ; and the rest of his long life was a terrible struggle against poverty and misprision till a very short while before his death in 1836, during which he submitted to a government sinecure. His ideas would naturally fire the generous imaginations of 1793, before the French Revolution had turned sour ; but it would seem that the fact which tells against Godwin is that his ideas were not based upon experience, nor so phrased as to continue to excite. Too many of his conclusions are on the level of the following on the education of children,: No creature in human form will be expected to learn anything but because he desires it and has some conception of -its utility and value ; and every man in proportion to his capacity will be ready to furnish such general hints and comprehensive views as will suffice for the guidance and encouragement of him who studies from a principle of desire. Admirable! But it simply does not work out ; it is too optimistic. In common with all anarchists, Godwin had a touching faith in the natural goodness and intelligence of man ; and with it he possessed all the contradictions that go with that attitude. There are, indeed, enormously valuable things in Godwin, things that we should cling to with all the steadfastness we are capable of, if we are ever to r• b out of the morass from which we thought till lately we really ere emerging. He is full of sound truths we are apt to lose sight , truths not very palatable to the administrative mind, but which ould always be in the forefront of ours. After all, without some- ing of optimistic anarchism, how can any of us be in any way dealists? , Brought up in a narrow Calvinistic home, he in his turn became a iMster, and attempted schoolmastering. His His was first under- i
[ ned by Priestley, then shattered by Holcroft ; and he emerged as agnostic with a mission to regenerate mankind, and a belief that, ough there was no future life, yet "religion is among the most beautiful and natural of all things." He himself had all the charming End attractive characteristics of the good man, honestly devoted to humanity (though perhaps he did not love it quite enough), with a horror of injustice and brute force, and he despised, with perfect sincerity, property, position, class ; a man of complete integrity, what- ever picture his rather odd money transactions may present on the surface. If Shelley could understand and forgive, who are we to be so primly righteous? .
Mr. Woodcock is genuinely sympathetic, and if his analysis does not always convince, he gives us all the material necessary to found our own judgement upon. It is perhaps just because he does not shrink from revealing the somewhat harsh side of Godwin's nature, together with his sensitiveness, that we close the book with a real admiration, almost a reverence, for the man, however little we may be tempted to read his books. Here is a figure at once touching and grand, so blundering in his affections, so fearlessly upholding his tenets. It would be easy to laugh at him, but it would be foolish to yield to the temptation. For Godwin had in him far more than the usual proportion of the striving impulse—call it divine if you will,
lid Godwin would not object—without some portion of which no an can exist • for to be without it is to be without hope. It is the emal youth of mankind straining at the leash. One must be grateful Mr. Woodcock for bringing him nearer to us; the figure begins
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