doctrines thoroughly incompatible with the religious basis of the Colleges. On the other hand, De Quincey is wrong in his palliation of Shelley's conduct when he puts it on the ground of his extreme youth. He asserts that at this period he had only entered upon his sixteenth year, whereas he had entered upon his nineteenth. The course which humanity should have dictated in the matter of the pamphlet would have been to allow some time for reflection on Shelley's part, in order to ascertain whether he had affirmed and maintained what were real fixed principles with him; and in case he answered in the affirmative, then to give him the option of withdrawal, after pointing out to him that by the very nature of his tenets he was precluded from remaining a student at the University. Had this been done, the University would have been vindicated, whilst the heart of Shelley might have been saved one pang, and his life one indignity-both of which must be regarded as unquestionably severe.

The results of the expulsion were disastrous to the poet in many ways. Besides the anguish which the act itself caused his sensitive spirit, his father, not in the least understanding the disposition of his gifted son, informed him that he could no longer visit at Field Place except upon certain con

ditions, to which Shelley found it impossible to accede. The bluff country member, in writing to the elder Mr. Hogg, expressed the hope that they would respectively be able to convert their sons from the error of their ways. "Paley's 'Natural Theology,' I shall recommend my young man to read," said Mr. Shelley. But his "young man " was too far gone for Paley, and remained refractory. After his dismissal from College, the intimacy between Shelley and his early love also abruptly ceased-another shaft of pain from which he suffered. Miss Grove was removed from his influence: and his correspondence with Miss Felicia Browne (afterwards Mrs. Hemans) also terminated in consequence of his heretical opinions.

In loneliness of heart, but with the pride of his lofty mind unsubdued by the bolts of misfortune which had fallen upon him, we next behold the outcast in London. He is now almost in pecuniary embarrassment, yet the generosity of his nature is not one whit impaired; and it is affirmed that on one occasion he actually pawned his favourite solar microscope to relieve a case of distress. Shelley took lodgings in Poland Street, a locality which is said to have reminded him of Thaddeus of Warsaw and freedom; and he appears to have nearly arrived at the same straits as that favourite hero. But

although his father treated him harshly, his sisters, whom he seems to have ever deeply loved, played the part of good Samaritans, sending him from their store of accumulated pocket-money sufficient to keep him from starvation. The next important incident in his life is one that, with his soul and temperament, might easily have been predicated. He fell in love. I ought, perhaps, rather to have said he was fascinated by the æsthetic appearance of the being who stirred in him this new feeling of admiration; for it would appear from subsequent events that love was too strong and too sacred a name to employ in describing the passion of Shelley for Harriet Westbrook. Certainly there was not the strength and intensity of feeling in it which he afterwards experienced for Mary Godwin. Miss Westbrook is described as a beautiful girl "with a complexion brilliant in pink and white, with hair quite like a poet's dream, and Bysshe's peculiar admiration"—that is, of a light brown colour. She was of delicate build, and at the time Shelley first saw her was about sixteen years of age. Her father was a retired hotel-keeper, and well to do. Harriet had a sister named Eliza, who was a constant butt for Mr. Hogg's ridicule, and who does not appear to have been particularly prepossessing. She had dark eyes, dark and plentiful hair, was pitted with

the small-pox, had a slight figure and a Jewish aspect. Much of the unhappiness of Shelley's life for the next few years was due to the influence of this sister, as will probably be one day proven. The letters of Shelley to Hogg at and near the time. of the meeting of the former with Miss Westbrook show that he had lost all hope of ever being united to Miss Grove, and possibly also his affection for her was on the wane. That he had felt keenly the disappointment in regard to her, nevertheless, is not dubious. Miss Westbrook's parents living in London, Shelley was on one occasion (after a slight indisposition from which she had suffered) chosen to escort Harriet back to school at Clapham-the same school in which were Shelley's sisters. Just at this time Sir Timothy Shelley made an amicable arrangement with his son, who found himself on a brief visit to Field Place. A new settlement of the property being arrived at, Sir Timothy agreed to make Shelley an allowance of £200 a year, and also gave him permission to live where he pleased. This latter piece of condescension was not much of a boon, seeing that the son had a will of his own; but the money was the substantial lifting of a cloud. A short period only elapsed after this settlement when Shelley, being in North Wales on a visit to Mr. Thomas Grove, his cousin, re

ceived an urgent summons from the sisters Westbrook to return to London. When this letter came to Shelley, calling him back to town, he said—

"Hear it not, Percy, for it is a knell

That summons thee to Heaven or to Hell."

On reaching London, he found that Harriet was in the midst of a violent quarrel with her father, who wished to force her to return to school against her will. Shelley took her part, and as a solution of the difficulty Harriet was in, they eloped together and were married in Edinburgh. In a letter written to Hogg (but whose authenticity Lady Shelley does not guarantee, though I do not see why she should not do so) Shelley says: "I shall certainly come to York, but Harriet Westbrook will decide whether now or in three weeks. Her father has persecuted her in a most horrible way by endeavouring to compel her to go to school. She asked my advice.. I advised her to resist. She wrote to say that resistance was useless, but that she would fly with me, and threw herself upon my protection." Mr. Rossetti believes from this that Miss Westbrook was quite ready to live with Shelley without the ceremony of marriage: this conjecture, however, may be harsh and unjust towards Miss Westbrook; for it is possible that there