subsistence. Your talents are truly extraordinary: Frankenstein is universally known, and though it can never be a book for vulgar reading is everywhere respected. It is the most wonderful book to have been written at twenty years of age that I ever heard of. You are now five-and-twenty. And, most fortunately, you have pursued a course of reading, and cultivated your mind in the manner most admirably adapted to make you a great and successful author. If you cannot be independent, who should be? Your talents, as far as I can at present discern, are turned for the writing of fictitious adventures.

"If it shall ever happen to you to be placed in sudden and urgent need of a small sum, I intreat you to let me know immediately. We must see what I can do. We must help one another. Your affectionate father,

"WILLIAM GODWIN."

Once more Godwin's friends came forward to help him in his difficulties, and the manner in which he was really regarded by those who knew him was even more shown now than it had been before. Then he was a politician, vigorous and fierce; a warm friend indeed and a dangerous enemy. Then the chief subscribers were among the leading Whig statesmen, and the subscription was in some degree a manifesto, but political and religious opinions played no part on this occasion. Then he was one whom men found it their interest to conciliate and help. But now he was broken and feeble—his pen was no longer vigorous, though always graceful; he was no more dangerous or very helpful. What was done was done for himself, and because men really valued him. The following letters refer to his difficulties and the aid given to him.

"We take the liberty of soliciting your attention to the case of Mr Godwin, a writer of great talents and reputation, distinguished by works of literature, not relating to any disputed questions, who in the sixty-seventh year of his age has been suddenly involved in difficulties without any want of industry and prudence on his part. He has for fifteen years earned a moderate income as a bookseller. He was unexpectedly engaged in a law-suit, occasioned by a dis puted title to the premises which he occupied, and being compelled to change his residence, he has again established himself in another house, with all appearances of the same moderate success as before. But the arrears of his former rent, which he had no reason to expect would ever have fallen on him, together with the costs of the law-suit, amount to a sum which he is wholly unable to pay. We hope that this sum, which does not exceed £600, may be raised by a subscription, which will not press heavily on any individual, and that a man of genius may thus be enabled by his own industry to earn a creditable subsistence during the remainder of his life.

"We have the honour to be your most obedient servants,

"MY DEAR MADAM,-Do you remember that it was contrary to my inclination that you were acquainted with the story of the judicial avalanche that threatened to fall on my head in the month of November next? How wrong I was. Yet I wished that all the communication that occurred between us should be an interchange of thoughts and sentiments. There is a conventional equality be

tween the gentle and the simple as long as the one are not benefactors, the others the receivers of benefits. Can that equality and reciprocity of sentiment exist afterwards? It is too late now to ask this question in relation to you and me. The Rubicon is past.

"Cæsar passed the banks of that river and came to other impediments. In this respect I am like Cæsar. He had his Ides of November, and so have I. November is now fast approaching, and my adversary is inexorable. In how brutal a manner he is capable of proceeding he showed in Skinner St., and when November arrives he will show here, unless he is prevented.

"My subscription has gone on unfortunately, or rather has stood still. Mr Murray, unluckily for me, undertook to be my Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State, and has slept in his offices. He has issued a very small number of letters. I have always been of opinion that a bare circular letter was of little efficacy: persons even well-disposed are inclined to wait till some special messenger comes to rouse their attention. Mr Murray has, however, baffled me there he has no list, and cannot even guess who are the persons to whom his letters have been sent.

"This is all unlucky enough, but, your Ladyship will ask, what is in your power to do for me? That is the point for me to come to. The Earl of Bessborough and Mr William Blake were names which you particularly did me the favour to point out: and you were so good as to add that you were persuaded they would have a pleasure in being brought into the business. Circular letters have therefore been dispatched to them in the present week, and would it be impertinent in me to add that a single word in any shape coming from your Ladyship might turn the index to a yes, instead of a no?

I would have addressed this letter to Mr Lamb, as being perhaps more properly the business of man and man, but you have so much accustomed me to present my trifles to you that my houghts, whether I will or no, when I take up the pen with the idea of Brocket Hall, sets the image of your Ladyship before me. May I hope soon to hear from you, to tell me you forgive this fresh act of impertinence?"

Lady Caroline Lamb to William Godwin.

"MY DEAR SIR,—I will, and indeed have written, and would that I could be of use to you. Some circumstances which I do not much wish to explain prevent me from offering my own assistance in the manner I could wish. Believe me, however, I will warmly press the matter to the few I know. In the meantime, will you in charity send me another ream of that thick drawing paper, 100 more pens, and two dozen sticks of wax. Not that I either write or do anything with it, but it goes as quick as lightning. Pray tell me if Mrs Shelley is your daughter: they say she is very interesting and beautiful, and is returned from abroad.

"Write to the Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl Fitzwilliam, Lord Dacre, the Duke of Devonshire, without naming me: merely send the circular letter, also to Mr Mansfield, Upper Winpole St., the Dowager Lady Lansdowne, Mr Lambton, Earl Grey, Lord Holland. None of these are friends of mine, but I think from circumstances it will be well to write to them. There is also Mr Rogers in St James' Place. Douglas Kinnaird too: he is a friend of Lord Byron's, and to him I have already written; but in all these cases you must not name me, only send the letters as from Mr Murray. Believe me sincerely yours,

C. L.

"Will you send my small account due to your secretary to Dr Roe, that I may discharge it?”

The Same to the Same.

“MY DEAR SIR,-From the moment when I saw you last under such excessive agitation, until the present moment, I have been, as you said I might be if I would, calm and perfectly well, and tolerably happy. Is it not strange, then, that I can suffer my mind to be so overpowered, and mostly about trifles? can you think of me with anything but contempt? Tell me, would you dislike paying me a little visit? I will not allure you by descriptions of a country life. If you come, I imagine it is to pay me a friendly visit, and if you do not, I shall feel secure you have good reasons for

not coming. The whole of what passed, which set me so beside myself, I forget and forgive; for my own faults are so great that I can see and remember nothing beside. Yet I am tormented with such a superabundance of activity, and have so little to do, that I want you to tell me how to go on.

"It is all very well if one died at the end of a tragic scene, after playing a desperate part; but if one lives, and instead of growing wiser, one remains the same victim of every folly and passion, without the excuse of youth and inexperience, what then? Pray say a few wise words to me. There is no one more deeply sensible than myself of kindness from persons of high intellect, and at this period of my life I need it.

"I have nothing to do-I mean necessarily. There is no particular reason why I should exist; it conduces to no one's happiness, and, on the contrary, I stand in the way of many. Besides, I seem to have lived 500 years, and feel I am neither wiser, better, nor worse than when I began. My experience gives me no satisfaction; all my opinions and beliefs and feelings are shaken, as if suffering from frequent little shocks of earthquakes. I am like a boat in a calm, in an unknown, and to me unsought-for sea, without compass to guide or even a knowledge whither I am destined. Now, this is probably the case of millions, but that does not mend the matter, and whilst a fly exists, it seeks to save itself. Therefore excuse me if I try to do the same. Pray write to me, and tell me also what you have done about my journal.

"Thank you for the frame; will you pay for it, and send me in any account we have at your house. I am very anxious about my dear boy. I must speak to you of him. Every one as usual is kind to me—I want for nothing this earth can offer but self-control. Forgive my writing so much about myself, and believe me most sincerely yours, CAROLINE LAMB.

William Godwin to Mr Sergeant Lens.

66

Sep. 24, 1823.

“SIR,—It is a thousand to one whether you recollect a little boy to whom you did a kind action between 50 and 60 years ago, and