k.'"

.....

And from that hour did I, with earnest thought,
Heap knowledge from forbidden mines of lore;
Yet nothing that ray tyrants knew or taught
I cared to learn, but from that secret store
Wrought linked armour for my soul, before
It might walk forth to war among mankind."

From Eton, Shelley went to Oxford, and while there he, scarce at the age
of eighteen, published a volume of political rhymes, entitled "Margaret
Nicholson's Remains," the said Margaret being a woman who tried to
assassinate George III. He also wrote a pamphlet in defence of Atheism.
A copy of this pamphlet he caused to be sent to the head of each of the
colleges in Oxford, with a challenge to discuss and answer.--The answer
to this was the edict which expelled Shelley from Oxford, and at the
same time placed a wide chasm between him and his family. This breach
was still further widened in the following year by his marriage, at the
age of nineteen, with a beautiful girl named Westbrook. Although Miss
Westbrook was respectfully connected, Shelley's aristocratic family
regarded this as a _mesalliance_, and withdrew his pecuniary allowance;
and had it not been for the bride's father, who allowed the young couple
L200 a year, they would have been reduced to actual poverty. This was an
unfortunate marriage for both. After having two children, disagreements
arose, and Shelley was separated from his wife. She (like all beautiful
women) was soon attacked by the busy tongue of slander, and, unable to
bear the world's taunts, committed suicide by throwing herself into a
pond, just four years from the date of their marriage. Shelley, on this
account, suffered much misery and misrepresentation, and this misery was
much increased by his family, who applied to the Court of Chancery, and
obtained a decree, by which Shelley was deprived of the custody of
his children, on the ground of his Atheism. The same spirit even now
pervades the Shelley family, and scarce a copy of his poems can be found
in the neighborhood of his birth-place. Shelley afterwards contracted
a second marriage with the daughter of Godwin, the author of "Caleb
Williams," and Mary Wollstonecroft (who died in giving birth to
Shelley's wife), and for sometime the poet resided at Marlow in
Buckinghamshire, where he composed the "Revolt of Islam;" and it is
a strong proof of the reality of Shelley's poetical pleadings for the
oppressed amongst the human race, t