of one whose principles, whose temper, whose thoughts you have long been acquainted with, and will, I believe, confess their universal constancy.' Nothing could be more obvious. Moreover, the match would 'restore her self-respect, and ensure for her no mean degree of respectability.' Mrs. Reveley in despair took to the most irritating of all positions. She was incapable, she said, of reasoning with him. He pointed out in vain that he was incapable of using an atom of sophistry. If, therefore, she could not reason for herself, she clearly ought to accept arguments so satisfactorily vouched. But against a person who declines to reason, reason is powerless, and Mrs. Reveley married Mr. Gisborne. Godwin was next to illustrate the failure of reason to protect even its possessors. Mrs. Clairmont, his next-door neighbour, saw him sitting in his balcony and exclaimed, 'Is it possible that I behold the immortal Godwin?' The poor man yielded to 'the homage of a vulgar mind,' and became a slave for life. No man's wife was ever more unanimously condemned by his friends. Lamb could only call her 'that damned Mrs. Godwin' or the 'disgusting woman who wears green spectacles.' She was handsome, we are told, and
