The first was Shelley's marriage with Mary Godwin on the 30th of December, 1816.

Whether Shelley would have taken this step except under strong pressure from without, appears to me very doubtful.

Of all men who ever lived, he was the most resolutely bent on confirming his theories by his practice; and in this instance there was no valid reason why he should not act up to principles professed in common by himself and the partner of his fortunes, no less than by her father and mother.

It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that he yielded to arguments; and these arguments must have been urged by Godwin, who had never treated him with cordiality since he left England in 1816.

Godwin, though overrated in his generation, and almost ludicrously idealized by Shelley, was a man whose talents verged on genius.