Page:Studies of a Biographer 3.djvu/145

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
WILLIAM GODWIN'S NOVELS
133

was very young and very beautiful, says his daughter, and full of 'deep sensibility'; her heart was full 'to bursting' with the hopes of political freedom, and she 'drank deeply' of Godwin's philosophy. His heart, it is added, was not disturbed—for the present at least—but both Mrs. Reveley and Mrs. Inchbald burst into tears when they heard that their philosopher was married to Mary Wollstonecraft. His relations even to that model enthusiast were a little hampered by philosophy. He took the peculiar precaution of occupying a separate house in order that their affection might not be exposed to the trial of constant intimacy. She complains, too, that when he was absent on a journey, he was too much attracted by the 'homage of vulgar minds' and restored to his 'icy philosophy.' The connection did not last long enough to try whether more serious jars might not arise between an icy philosopher and a romantic sentimentalist. Yet it is only fair to admit that Godwin seems to have been roused for once to a genuine passion, and that when his wife died, he felt the blow like a man and dropped the philosopher. There was, one is glad to know, some really warm blood beneath the surface, though during the rest of his career it remained