st of his friends. When he applied to Wedgwood,
the philosophic potter of Etruria, or to Ritson, the vegetarian, or in
later years to Shelley for money, he was simply giving virtue its
occasion, and assisting property to find its level. He practised what he
preached, and he would himself give with a generosity which seemed
prodigal, to his own relatives, to promising young men, and even to
total strangers. He supported one disciple at Cambridge, as he had
educated Cooper in his younger days. It was the prevailing theory of
the age that men of genius have the right to call on society in the
persons of its wealthier members for support. Helvetius, himself a rich
man, had maintained this view. Southey and Coleridge acted on it. Dr.
Priestley, universally respected both for his character and his talents,
received large gifts from friends, admirers, members of his congregation
and aristocratic patrons. To Godwin, profoundly individualistic as he
was, a post in the civil service, or even a professorship, would have
seemed a more degrading form of charity than this private benevolence.

Partly to mend his fortunes, partly to furnish himself with an
occupation when his mind refused original work, Godwin in 1805 turned
publisher. It was a disastrous inspiration, due apparently to his wife,
who believed herself to possess a talent for business. The firm was
established in Skinner Street, Holborn, and specialised in school books
and children's tales. They were well-printed, and well-illustrated, and
Godwin, writing under the pseudonym of Edward Baldwin, to avoid the
odium which had now overtaken his own name, compiled a series of
histories with his usual industry and conscientious finish. Through
years darkened with misfortune and clouded by failing health, he worked
hard at the business of publishing. His capital was never adequate,
though his friends and admirers twice came to his aid with public
subscriptions. In 1822 he was evicted for arrears of rent, and in 1825
the unlucky venture came to an end.

These years were crowded with literary work, for neither "Baldwin" nor
Godwin allowed their common pen to idle. Two elaborate historical works
enjoyed and deserved a great reputation in their day, though subsequent
research has rendered them obsolete--a _Life of Geoffrey Chaucer_ (1803)
and a _History of the Commonwealth of England from its Commencement to
the Restoration of Charles II._ (1824-8). It is not easy for modern
taste