MEMOIR OP WILLIAM HOWITT. 
871 
The circumstance of their names having thus become attached to so many 
separate articles, now led Mr. and Mrs. Howitt to a separate publication of 
Volumes. Mrs. Howitt has since published The Seven Temptations , a dramatic 
work of high character; Wood-Leighton , a prose work of fiction, and several 
volumes for the young, all of which have acquired deserved popularity. 
In 1832 Mr. Howitt produced the Book of the Seasons , a volume the publica¬ 
tion of which was attended by a circumstance curious in itself, and which should 
teach young authors not to be discouraged by the opinions of publishers. The 
Book of the Seasons was offered to four of the principal publishing houses and 
rejected by them ; till the author , in disgust , told the gentleman in whose hands it 
was left , to tie a stone to the MS., and fling it over London Bridge. At length 
Colburn and Bentley took it: the press with one simultaneous cheer of appro¬ 
bation saluted its appearance ; it has since gone through six large editions, and a 
seventh is now preparing! 
In 1831 Mr. Howitt published a work of a very different description, the 
History of Priestcraft, which was still more successful, having already run through 
six editions, some of them of 3,000 copies each. The work, of course, excited as 
much abuse from one party as applause from another; but the readers of the 
Book of the Seasons could not comprehend how the same spirit could produce 
both these works. The union is, nevertheless, perfectly compatible. The Book 
of the Seasons is full of kindly and gentle feeling; but the mind capable of that 
kindly feeling, and yet not of high and virtuous indignation, must be a weak 
mind. It should be recollected that Mr. Howitt was born and educated a 
Quaker. He had imbued himself with the writings and spirit of the first 
Quakers, who were a sturdy race, and suffered much persecution from the 
Established Church. This was quite sufficient to explain why Mr. Howitt, 
with the most liberal feelings towards all denominations of Christians, should 
have regarded a state religion as an injury to his fellow citizens, and have written 
this remarkable book. 
In 1835 our author published “ Pantika, or Traditions of the most Ancient 
Times,” a work of imagination, on which the highest eulogiums were pronounced 
by the critics, and which we have no hesitation in classing as the most brilliant 
production of Mr. Howitt’s pen, and as one of the most extraordinary works of 
imagination in the language. 
The publication of the History of Priestcraft may be said to have driven our 
author from Nottingham. Till then he lived in great privacy ; but this volume 
discovered to his townsmen that he possessed political opinions. He appeared 
then as the advocate of popular rights, and in that town there is a considerable 
portion of the population which has always been greatly in want of zealous and 
able leaders. These seized on Mr. Howitt as a champion unexpectedly found. 
VOL. iv. —no. xxxi. 3 c 
