Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/62

 ��MARK TWAIN

absorbed smaller men, and only came down to the ground at intervals to pass the hat for alms to pay his debts with, and insult the man that relieved him. Several of his principles were out of the ordinary. For example, he was opposed to marriage. He was not aware that his preachings from this text were but theory and wind; he supposed he was in earnest in imploring people to live together without marry ing, until Shelley furnished him a working model of his scheme and a practical example to analyze, by applying the principle in his own family; the matter took a different and surprising aspect then. The late Matthew Arnold said that the main defect in Shelley s make-up was that he was destitute of the sense of humor. This episode must have escaped Mr. Arnold s attention.

But we have said enough about the head of the new paradise. Mrs. Godwin is described as being in several ways a terror ; and even when her soul was in repose she wore green spectacles. But I suspect that her main unattractiveness was born of the fact that she wrote the letters that are out in the appendix- basket in the back yard letters which are an out rage and wholly untrustworthy, for they say some kind things about poor Harriet and tell some dis agreeable truths about her husband; and these things make the fabulist grit his teeth a good deal.

Next we have Fanny Godwin a Godwin by courtesy only; she was Mrs. Godwin s natural daughter by a former friend. She was a sweet and winning girl, but she presently wearied of the God win paradise, and poisoned herself.

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