Page:Studies of a Biographer 3.djvu/152

Godwin's fame was at its zenith—just before the trial of his friends. A preface, announcing its purpose, was suppressed for the time by the fears of his publisher. 'It is now known to philosophers,' says this document (philosophers had just been enlightened by Political Justice) 'that the spirit and character of government intrudes into every rank of life.' The novel was to illustrate this truth, and to exhibit 'the modes of domestic and unrecorded despotism by which man becomes the destroyer of man.' That is to say, apparently, it is to show how the wicked aristocrat carries into private life the execrable principles of kings and ministers. Caleb Williams was, like Uncle Tom's Cabin, to rouse men to a sense of the evils of slavery. The reader, unassisted by the preface, would scarcely perceive this doctrine between the lines. Falkland, the hero, is a model country gentleman; not only a benevolent and public-spirited landlord, but a man of taste and a poet. Like his predecessor, Sir Charles Grandison, he shows his high qualities under the most delicate circumstances. A lovely Italian lady is so charmed by him as to excite the jealousy of the lover to whom she is already betrothed. Falkland's tact and dignity enable him