impressed with the importance of the views and the ingenuity of the argument contained in the MS., and recommended his son to submit his labours to the public. This is the substance of the story as it was related by the author himself to the writer of this memoir; and if any confirmation were wanting of the fact, there is sufficient in the internal evidence of the works themselves. The main object of the octavo volume, being the refutation of Godwin and Condorcet, it is against them that his arguments are throughout chiefly directed; while the chapter on the poor laws occupies a very minor portion of the work, and was in truth only a branch of the subject into which he was involuntarily led. Upon reflexion, however, he soon found that the field into which he had now entered was of infinitely more interest than that on which he had at first set out. In this therefore he wisely continued his researches, and finding the subject grow upon him both in extent and importance as he advanced, he insensibly assigned to it the ascendancy which it deserved. Accordingly it will be found that in his quarto volume which he published upon his return from the continent, the order as well as the proportions of the matter is reversed. The state and prospects of the poor become the prominent feature, and occupy the principal portion of his book, while Mr. Godwin, and the perfectibility of man, are treated as matters of less moment, and are restricted to a much smaller space. These facts will furnish an interesting key to many passages in these works as well as to the forms and order in which they are put. They shew how curiously one thought was pushed out from another, till the whole grew together into the goodly system in which it now appears.
Qual ramicel a ramo
Tal da pensier pensiero
In lui germogliava.
