Section IL, 1904 [187] Trans. R. S. C. 



II. — Shelley's Debt to eighteenth Century Thought. 

 By Pelha:m Edgar, Ph.D. 



(Presented bj' D. C. Scott, and read June 22, 1904.) 



Picture to yourself a wild-haired, bright-eyed youth of eighteen 

 who at the beginning of Michaelmas term, 1810, had come up from 

 Eton to Oxford. He is the heir to a baronetcy, and to many broad 

 acres in Sussex. The circumstances of his life have surrounded him 

 with every advantage that might lead to worldly place and power. He 

 has but to follow in the beaten path of tradition, and from Oxford he 

 will graduate into Parliament. Here his wealth, his talents, and his 

 powerful support will swiftly bring him into prominence, and a peerage 

 will lend dignity to his closing years. 



Thus common sense and the opinion of the world would dictate, 

 and such were the dreams no doubt that shaped themselves in the mind 

 of his honest blundering father as he left the young Shelley within the 

 walls of University College. 



But common sense and the traditions of the world had small share 

 in shaping the destiny of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Six months later he 

 was expelled from Oxford as the author of an atheistic pamplilet. This 

 was in March, 1811. In August of the same year he married, in a fit 

 of freakish sympathy, Harriet Westbrook, the daughter of a London 

 coffee-house keeper. " Her father," wrote Shelley, " has persecuted 

 her in a most horrible way, by endeavouring to compel her to go to 

 school. She asked my advice, — ^resistance was the answer — and in con- 

 sequence of my advice she has thrown herself upon my protection.''" 



This marriage, regarded by Shelley's family as a grave mésalliance, 

 was answered by the only argument which the father now deemed 

 feasible — a withdrawal of support. The Duke of Norfolk, whom the 

 young Shelleys visited with their last guinea, now intervened on his 

 behalf. The family thought that the time had come at last when 

 Shelley might be expected to listen to the dictates of wordly prudence. 

 The grandfather. Sir Bysshe Shelley, had possibly heard of Shelley's 

 intention ultimately to divide his estate with his sisters, and the sister 

 of his soul, Eliza Kitchener. Landed proprietors are not wont to con- 

 template such projects with complacency. A portion of the estate 

 was already entailed upon Shelley. He now heard the rumour of a 

 proposition whereby he might at once pass from penury to wealth, 



