them. This change
is greatly to Mary's credit. As, in his Introduction to "St. Leon" he
made his public recantation of faith, so in the course of the story he
elaborated his new doctrines, and, by so doing, paid tribute to the woman
who had wrought the wonder. His hero's description of married pleasures
being based on his own knowledge of them, he writes:--

"Now only it was that I tasted of perfect happiness. To judge from
my own experience in this situation, I should say that nature has
atoned for all the disasters and miseries she so copiously and
incessantly pours upon her sons by this one gift, the transcendent
enjoyment and nameless delights which, wherever the heart is pure
and the soul is refined, wait on the attachment of two persons of
opposite sexes.... It has been said to be a peculiar felicity for
any one to be praised by a man who is himself eminently a subject
of praise; how much happier to be prized and loved by a person
worthy of love. A man may be prized and valued by his friend; but
in how different a style of sentiment from the regard and
attachment that may reign in the bosom of his mistress or his
wife.... In every state we long for some fond bosom on which to
rest our weary head; some speaking eye with which to exchange the
glances of intelligence and affection. Then the soul warms and
expands itself; then it shuns the observation of every other
beholder; then it melts with feelings that are inexpressible, but
which the heart understands without the aid of words; then the eyes
swim with rapture, then the frame languishes with enjoyment; then
the soul burns with fire; then the two persons thus blest are no
longer two; distance vanishes, one thought animates, one mind
informs them. Thus love acts; thus it is ripened to perfection;
never does man feel himself so much alive, so truly ethereal, as
when, bursting the bonds of diffidence, uncertainty, and reserve,
he pours himself entire into the bosom of the woman he adores."

Mary was as much metamorphosed by her new circumstances as Godwin. Her
heart at rest, she grew gay and happy. She was at all times, even when
harassed with cares, thoughtful of other people. When her own troubles
had ceased, her increased kindliness was shown in many little ways, which
unfortunately cannot be appreciated by posterity, but which made her, to