WILLIAM GODWIN
“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project William Godwin HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1756
March 3, Wednesday: William Godwin was born in Wisbech in the Cambridgeshire Fens. The Reverend John Godwin, his father, was the minister of Wisbech Independent Chapel and his mother Ann Hull had originated in a well- to-do family (they had several ships trading on the Baltic Sea). GODWIN’S EARLY LIFE
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
William Godwin “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1758
The family of origin of William Godwin relocated from the Fens of England to Debenham near Suffolk.
LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project William Godwin HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1759
April 27, Friday: Mary Wollstonecraft was born in Spitalfields, London.
FEMINISM
THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project William Godwin HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1760
The family of origin of William Godwin relocated from Debenham near Suffolk to Guestwich near Norwich, where the Reverend John Godwin would, for a dozen years, until his death, be minister of the Independent Meeting House.
THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project William Godwin HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1767
William Godwin was sent to Norwich where he would be the sole student of the Reverend Samuel Newton. GODWIN’S EARLY LIFE
CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT
William Godwin “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1772
November: The Reverend John Godwin, father of William Godwin, died. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1773
William Godwin went to London and applied for admission to the Homerton Academy (his application would be rejected because of his adherence to Sandemanian views, after which he would spent several months with relatives in Kent). SANDEMANIANISM
September: William Godwin was admitted to the dissenting “Coward’s Trust Academy” at Hoxton, where for five years he would be tutored by the Reverend Mr. Andrew Kippis, D.D.
DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.
William Godwin “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1778
May: William Godwin left the school at Hoxton to take up the functions of Minister in the small town of Ware in Hertfordshire. There he would meet the Reverend Joseph Fawcet. GODWIN’S EARLY LIFE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1779
August: William Godwin relocated from Ware in Hertfordshire to London, where for four months he would lodge near Cripplegate. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1780
William Godwin relocated from London to Stowmarket in Suffolk, where he was introduced to the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Claude Adrien Helvétius, and Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach, and converted from Sandemanianism to Deism. GODWIN’S EARLY LIFE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1782
William Godwin, who had a couple of years earlier converted from Sandemanianism to Deism, in this year converted from Deism to Socinianism. GODWIN’S EARLY LIFE
WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF
May: William Godwin relocated from Stowmarket in Suffolk to London.
December: William Godwin relocated from London to Beaconsfield.
William Godwin “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1783
For seven months, at Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, William Godwin served as the minister of the Socinian congregation.
January: Anonymous publication of William Godwin’s HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR AND SOLD BY G. K EARSLEY (London).
July: William Godwin returned to London, residing in Holborn and beginning to earn his living as a writer.
August 4, Monday: William Godwin’s AN ACCOUNT OF THE SEMINARY THAT WILL BE OPENED ON MONDAY THE FOURTH DAY OF AUGUST AT EPSOM IN SURREY (London: T. Cadell). The venture, for a dozen students, would not materialize. GODWIN’S EARLY LIFE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1784
William Godwin’s SKETCHES OF HISTORY IN SIX SERMONS (London: T. Cadell). His anonymous THE HERALD OF LITERATURE, AS A REVIEW OF THE MOST CONSIDERABLE PUBLICATIONS THAT WILL BE MADE IN THE COURSE OF THE ENSUING WINTER (London: J. Murray). His anonymous INSTRUCTIONS TO A STATESMAN. HUMBLY INSCRIBED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE EARL TEMPLE (London: Murray, J. Debrett & J. Sewell). In this period, although he was employed as an assistant in the preparation of the NEW ANNUAL REGISTER, his primary income was coming from the reviews he was writing (in this year and in the following year as well) for Murray’s English Review.
GODWIN’S EARLY LIFE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1785
Early in the year: Early in this year William Godwin wrote a series of letters in the Political Herald, using the identity “Mucius.” He would become the publication’s acting editor, but when an offer would be made for him to be the permanent editor, he would decline. He was sharing a house with James Marshall, who would become a lifelong friend. He met the Reverend Joseph Priestley. GODWIN’S LITERARY WORK HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1786
William Godwin met Thomas Holcroft, the novelist and playwright. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1787
The emigrant to America Thomas Paine exhibited a model of his long, single-span wrought-iron bridge in Philadelphia and then sailed back to England to raise funds to attempt a full-scale construction. With the outbreak of the French Revolution, he would become a citizen of France and be elected to the National Assembly.
The radical bookseller Joseph Johnson introduced William Blake to the circle of Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, the Reverend Joseph Priestley, and Thomas Paine. Blake began to experiment with a new method of engraving in which the drawings were done in reverse in an impervious liquid on copper plates, and then the unprotected parts eaten away with acid. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1788
An orphaned cousin, Thomas Cooper, age 12, came under the care of William Godwin. During this year and the following one, Godwin would be writing away at THE ENGLISH PEERAGE. GODWIN’S LITERARY WORK HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1791
April 13, Wednesday: William Godwin met Mary Wollstonecraft at a dinner at which Thomas Paine was also a guest.
May: William Godwin planned AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING POLITICAL JUSTICE, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON GENERAL VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS. GODWIN’S POLITICAL WRITINGS HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1793
February: William Godwin’s AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING POLITICAL JUSTICE, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON GENERAL VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS (2 volumes, London: G.G. & J. Robinson). GODWIN’S POLITICAL WRITINGS HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1794
William Godwin’s THINGS AS THEY ARE; OR THE ADVENTURES OF CALEB WILLIAMS (3 volumes, London: B. Crosby). His CURSORY STRICTURES ON THE CHARGE DELIVERED BY LORD CHIEF JUSTICE EYRE TO THE GRAND JURY … OCTOBER 2, 1794, first published anonymously in the Morning Chronicle for October 21st (London: D.I. Eaton) and A REPLY TO AN ANSWER TO CURSORY STRICTURES, SUPPOSED TO BE WROTE BY JUDGE BULLER. BY THE AUTHOR OF CURSORY STRICTURES (London: D.I. Eaton). GODWIN’S POLITICAL WRITINGS HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1795
William Godwin’s anonymous CONSIDERATIONS ON LORD GRENVILLE’S AND MR. PITT’S BILLS, CONCERNING TREASONABLE AND SEDITIOUS PRACTICES, AND UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLIES. BY A LOVER OF ORDER (London: J. Johnson). The author was sketched by Sir Thomas Lawrence (this engraving of the sketch was by W. Ridley). HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1797
William Godwin’s THE ENQUIRER, REFLECTIONS ON EDUCATION, MANNERS AND LITERATURE, (London: G.G. & J. Robinson).
March 29, Wednesday: William Godwin got married with Mary Wollstonecraft.
WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE
August 30, Friday: Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft was born in London, the only daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
September 10, Sunday: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, mother of the infant Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft, died due to complications of the delivery.
FEMINISM WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1798
William Godwin’s MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOR OF A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN, (London: J. Johnson and G.G. & J. Robinson). WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1799
William Godwin’s ST. LEON, A TALE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY (4 volumes, London: G.G. & J. Robinson).
When Charles Lloyd accused Mary Hays of improprieties, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, and William Godwin became involved in the furor. WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1801
William Godwin’s THOUGHTS OCCASIONED BY THE PERUSAL OF DR. PARR’S SPITAL SERMON, PREACHED AT CHRIST CHURCH, APRIL 15, 1800: BEING A REPLY TO THE ATTACKS OF DR. PARR, MR.MACKINTOSH, THE AUTHOR OF AN ESSAY ON POPULATION, AND OTHERS (London: G.G. & J. Robinson). HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1803
William Godwin remarried, with Mary Jane Clairmount. WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1804
The 2d edition of William Godwin’s LIFE OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER, THE EARLY ENGLISH POET: INCLUDING MEMOIRS OF HIS NEAR FRIEND AND KINSMAN, JOHN OF GAUNT, DUKE OF LANCASTER; WITH SKETCHES OF THE MANNERS, OPINIONS, ARTS AND LITERATURE OF ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY... (London: Printed by T. Davidson, for R. Phillips; the 1st edition of this had been published in 1803). David Henry Thoreau would check the first two volumes out of the Harvard Library on May 5, 1835 and make notes in his college miscellaneous notebooks now stored at the Alderman Library of the University of Virginia. GODWIN’S CHAUCER, VOL. 1 GODWIN’S CHAUCER, VOL. 2 GODWIN’S CHAUCER, VOL. 3 GODWIN’S CHAUCER, VOL. 4 HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1805
Amelia Opie’s ADELINE MOWBRAY (Amelia’s father was a friend and admirer of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and this novel is based around Mary Wollstonecraft’s life).
William Godwin established “The Juvenile Library.” His FLEETWOOD. OR THE NEW MAN OF FEELING (3 volumes, London: R. Phillips). HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1807
Charles and Mary Lamb’s TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE, in which he had dealt with the tragedies and she with the comedies (this become a bestseller in William Godwin’s “Children’s Library”).
WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1812
October 4, Sunday: In London a spendthrift 19-year-old heir to a baronetcy, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was just getting his bride Harriet Westbrook Shelley pregnant, met William Godwin, a liberally oriented man whose defenseless daughter Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft had just turned 15. Hot damn!
WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE
US forces defeated British forces at Ogdensburgh, New York after a British raid out of Prescott, Ontario had failed and their two gunboats had been forced to return.
The French garrison of the Spanish city of Burgos was besieged by British and Portuguese troops under Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington. The siege would fail when French forces would be relieved, but Wellington would capture the city during June 1813 shortly before the battle of Vitoria.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 3 [sic] of 10 M / C R was concern’d in testimony in the forenoon & Afternoon Meetings — Visited the Work & Alms houses — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1814
Spring: The spendthrift 21-year-old heir to a baronetcy, Percy Bysshe Shelley, was feeling needful of some female other than his own wife Harriet Westbrook Shelley (who just at this period was becoming again pregnant by him) or his own infant daughter Ianthe Shelley, someone with nice tits who would understand his deep spirit, someone “who can feel poetry and understand philosophy” who would be so pleasant as to ring his chimes for him. He hit on a real babe, the vulnerable motherless 16-year-old daughter of his liberally oriented friend William Godwin, Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft. Bingo!
WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1815
William Godwin’s LIVES OF EDWARD AND JOHN PHILIPS. NEPHEWS AND PUPILS OF MILTON. INCLUDING VARIOUS PARTICULARS OF THE LITERARY AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF THEIR TIMES, (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown). HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1816
December 30, Monday: Some three weeks after Percy Bysshe Shelley’s abandoned wife’s drowned body had been discovered in the Serpentine, he as the absconding father of two legitimate orphaned children and his mistress Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft felt constrained to wed — presumably to enhance Percy’s chances at 1 his pending hearing to obtain custody of his children by Harriet Westbrook Shelley, Ianthe Shelley (age 3 /2) and Charles Shelley (age 2).
WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 30 of 12 M / I feel this day that another space in the HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
wheel of Time has sunk beneath the pinion - Alas with me another Year has gone I am this evening 35 Years of Age - When I awoke this morning my mind was forceably impressed with my deficiencies in every respect & a labor has been witnessed thro’ the day for a revival of religious Sensibility but as an aged man has remarked of himself in my presence this evening, “I can feel how I want to feel, but do not feel as I ought to feel” Yet thro’ divine mercy I have experienced some evidence of the continuance of Divine favor. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1817
William Godwin’s novel MANDEVILLE, A TALE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY IN ENGLAND (3 volumes, Edinburgh, A. Constable; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown). HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1818
Percy Bysshe Shelley’s REVOLT OF ISLAM.
William Godwin’s FURTHER LETTERS OF ADVICE TO JOSEPH BEAVAN (Analectic Magazine, Philadelphia). HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1819
September 9, Thursday: William Godwin wrote his daughter Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft Shelley after her loss of her child: Skinner Street, Sep. 9, 1819. My dear Mary Your letter of August 19 is very grievous to me, inasmuch as you represent me as increasing the degree of your uneasiness & depression. You must however allow me the privilege of a father & a philosopher, in expostulating with you upon this depression. I cannot but consider it as lowering your character in a memorable degree, & putting you quite among the commonalty & mob of your sex, when I had thought I saw in you symptoms, entitling you to be ranked among those spirits that do honour to our nature. Oh, what a falling off is here! How bitterly is so inglorious a change to be deplored! What is it you want that you have not? You have the husband of your choice, to whom you seem to be unalterably attached, a man of high intellectual endowments, whatever I & some other persons may think of his morality, & the defects under this last head, if they be not (as you seem to think) imaginary, at least do not operate as towards you. You have all the goods of fortune, all the means of being useful to others, & shining in your proper sphere. But you have lost a child: & all the rest of the world, all that is beautiful, & all that has a claim upon your kindness, is nothing, because a child of three years old is dead! The human species may be divided into two great classes: those who lean on others for support: & those who are qualified to support. Of these last some have one, some five, & some ten talents: some can support a husband, a child, a small but respectable circle of friends & dependents, & some can support a world, contributing by their energies to advance their whole species one or more degrees in the scale of perfectibility. The former class sit with their arms crossed, a prey to apathy & languor, of no use to any earthly creature, & ready to fall from their stools, if some kind soul, who might compassionate, but who cannot respect them, did not come from moment to moment, & endeavour to set them up again. You were formed by nature to belong to the best of these classes: but you seem to be shrinking away, & voluntarily enrolling yourself among the worst. Above all things I intreat you, do not put the miserable delusion on yourself, to think there is something fine, & beautiful, & delicate, in giving yourself up, & agreeing to be nothing. Remember too that, though, at first, your nearest connections may pity you in this state, yet that when they see you fixed in selfishness & ill humour, & regardless of the happiness of every HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
one else, they will finally cease to love you, & scarcely learn to endure you....
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 9th of 9th M 1819 / Our Meeting was rather small & to me rather low, tho’ I have no doubt some life was experienced among us. —- Abigail Sherman was concerned in a few words. — This evening after a few days illness of a fever Lemuel Bailey departed this life, he was a fine boy, & promised usefulness, but alass he has made his escape from a troublesome World & I trust is at rest. Such was his uprightness promptness & faithfulness in every respect in Br D Rodmans buisness as greatly endeared him to the family, & Such his natural urbanity & Kindness to all with whom he had any concern or acquaintance, that no boy was better beloved, it may be well said that he left a good report behind him.— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1820
William Godwin’s OF POPULATION. AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING THE POWER OF INCREASE IN THE NUMBERS OF MANKIND, BEING AN ANSWER TO MR. MALTHUS’S ESSAY ON THAT SUBJECT, (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Ornie & Brown) HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1822
August 15, Thursday: After the two drownings on July 8th when the yacht had sunk during a squall off Livorno, the body of Edward Williams had been cremated on the 13th where it had come to the shore near Via Reggio, and the body of Percy Bysshe Shelley had been cremated on the shore at Lericcio near Leghorn. On this day Edward John Trelawny described the occasion: Three white wands had been stuck in the sand to mark the Poet’s grave, but as they were at some distance from each other, we had to cut a trench thirty yards in length, in the line of the sticks, to ascertain the exact spot, and it was nearly an hour before we came upon the grave. Byron could not face this scene, he withdrew to the beach and swam off to the Bolivar. Leigh Hunt remained in the carriage. The fire was so fierce as to produce a white heat on the iron, and to reduce its contents to grey ashes. The only portions that were not consumed were some fragments of bones, the jaw, and the skull, but what surprised us all, was that the heart remained entire. In snatching this relic from the fiery furnace, my hand was severely burnt; and had anyone seen me do the act I should have been put into quarantine. Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft Shelley would return to London, where she would reside briefly with her father William Godwin before taking her own lodgings nearby.
The English vessel Orion, Captain William A. Richardson, came to anchor at Yerba Buena in San Francisco Bay.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 15 of 8 M / Our Meeting was a good one & pretty well [— tended] RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1824
The initial volume of William Godwin’s HISTORY OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND FROM ITS COMMENCEMENT TO ITS RESTORATION (4 volumes, until 1828; London: H. Colburn). He discontinued his “Juvenile Library.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1831
William Godwin’s THOUGHTS ON MAN, HIS NATURE, PRODUCTIONS, AND DISCOVERIES. INTERSPERSED WITH SOME PARTICULARS RESPECTING THE AUTHOR, (London: Effingham Wilson). HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1833
The government of Earl Grey conveyed upon William Godwin the sinecure office of Yeoman Usher of the Exchequer, with an apartment in Palace Yard1 and a yearly salary of £ 220.
1. This was not the Old Palace Yard in which Guy Fawkes had been drawn and quartered but the New Palace Yard in which Titus Oates had been whipped and pilloried. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1835
May 5, Tuesday: King Leopold of Belgium officiated at the opening of a railroad line from Brussels to Mechelen — the 1st public passenger railroad to be opened in Europe.
In Greenwich, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 5 of 5 M / My friend James Taylor was interd this Afternoon - I could not attend the funeral expecting to be called to go on Board the Greenwich Packet which we were about 4 OC & reached there before Dark — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
David Henry Thoreau was studying the first two volumes of Harvard Library’s copy of the 2d edition of William Godwin’s LIFE OF GEOFFREY CHAUCER, published in London in 1804.
GODWIN’S CHAUCER, VOL. 1 GODWIN’S CHAUCER, VOL. 2 GODWIN’S CHAUCER, VOL. 3 GODWIN’S CHAUCER, VOL. 4 He would make notes in the series of college notebooks now stored at the Alderman Library of the University of Virginia.
Per the records of the “Institute of 1770”: Thoreau absent. Russell lectured on “Poetry.” Debated: “Whether the spread of the Catholic religion endangers the freedom of our institutions.” Debaters for the next discussion: Trull, Treat, Thoreau and Thomas. Lecturers: Thoreau and Treat. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1836
April 7, Thursday: Death of William Godwin in London. The body would be interred next to Mary Wollstonecraft in the burial ground of Old St. Pancras Church (in 1851 both would be moved to Bournemouth Churchyard to be placed next to Mary Shelley).
Here is a fragment that by chance has been preserved, evidently of a Harvard College essay by David Henry Thoreau on Sir Henry Vane although we do not have a record of Professor Channing having made this one of his assignments. The fragmentary essay is now at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, California. At least a third of a page is missing at its center. At its end this fragment bears the marking “Concord, April 7th 1836.” The “Clarendon” reference in the text would be to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon’s 1717 HISTORY OF THE REBELLION AND CIVIL WARS IN ENGLAND: BEGUN IN THE YEAR 1641: ... The fact that he was no party man, the leader of no sect, but equally to be feared by the foes of freedom and religion every where, explains the circumstance of his being passed over, with little if any notice, by the historians of the day. The age in which he lived was not worthy of him, his contemporaries knew not how to appreciate his talents or his motives to action, the principles which he advanced, the great truths which he foretold were soon to shake the civilized world to its very center, and before which the bulwarks of tyranny and oppression were to crumble away, were to them absolutely unintelligible, unmeaning nonsense — opposed to that “clearness of ratiocination” which even Clarendon allowed him to possess in conversation. It was peculiarly the duty of America to brush away the dust of ages that had collected around his name — to clear off the cobwebs that prejudices and calumny had spun ... of argument in defence of liberty religious and political, were the captives that adorned his triumph — assembled multitudes formed the procession — the talent, wealth, and nobility of the kingdom were collected around his chariot, to wonder and admire. Thus fell Vane, “Than whom”, in the words of a kindred spirit, “a better senator ne’er held “The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repelled” “The fierce Epirot, and the African bold,” “Whether to settle peace, or to unfold” “The drift of hollow states hard to be spelled.” On whose “firm hand Religion leans” “In peace, and reckons” –him– “her eldest son”.
Equally the terror of evil-doers, and the praise of those who did well wherever and whoever they might be.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 7th of 4th M 1836 / Our Meeting was silent - but some of the few who met I trust were sensible & knew the Source from whence worship was performed - It was but a low time with me. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1837
January 30, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day went into Town & spent the day in attending to some buisness & visiting some of my old acquaintance Dined at Dr Tobeys & returned to the School House to lodge — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS David Henry Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, Volume 5 of the New Series of The Gentleman’s Magazine, dealing with that magazine’s 1836 content:2 THE GENTLEMAN’S MAG. • [iii]-iv. S:. “Preface.” The Reverend John Mitford [Originator: “Sylvanus Urban”] • pages 2. S:. Note re Robert Montgomery Martin’s History of the British Colonies. Thomas Fisher • pages 2. L:. Remarks re the Abbé de la Rue. Thomas Wright [Originator: “Gaulois”] • pages 2. L:. Genealogical note on Sacheverell family. Charles Edward Long [Originator: “l.”] • pages 3-10. Review: Thomas Frognall Dibdin’s Reminiscences of a Literary Life. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 10-13. Article: “Diary of a Lover of Literature [by Thomas Green; abridged by Mitford (cont.)].” The Reverend John Mitford • pages 14-15. Article: “Royal Porcelain Works, Worcester.” Martin Barr [Originator: “B.”] • pages 15-16. Article: “St. Olave’s Grammar School, Southwark.” George Richard Corner [Originator: “G.R.C.”] • pages 16. Article: “Quaestiones Venusinae.—No. VII [conc.].” The Reverend James Tate [Originator: “The Author of Horatius Restitutus”] • pages 17-27. Article: “Records of the Exchequer.” John Bruce • pages 32. L:. “Our Lord’s Miracles on the Maimed.” Dr. Samuel Merriman the Younger [Originator: “Ilaranthropos”{in Greek}] • pages 33-36. Article: “St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster.” John Gough Nichols [Originator: “J.G.N.”] • pages 36-43. Article: “Scandinavia and the British Isles.” Nicholas Carlisle • pages 49-51. Review: James Davidson’s The History of Axminster Church. John Gough Nichols • pages 51-52. Review: William Caveller’s Select Specimens of Gothic Architecture. Edward John Carlos • pages 52-53. Review: Samuel Tymms’s The Family Topographer, vol. 5. Edward John Carlos • pages 53-55. Review: Spiritual Despotism. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 55-57. Review: A. James Augustus St. John’s Egypt and Mohammed Ali. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 57-58. Review: Harry Chester’s The Lay of the Lady Ellen. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 58-59. Review: England and Russia; A Statement of Facts. By a Resident at Constantinople; Edward Stirling’s Some Considerations on the Political State of the intermediate Country between Persia and India. Thomas Fisher • pages 59-60. Review: Annual Reports of the American Anti-Slavery Society; Anti-Slavery Record; Société Française pour l’Abolition de l’Esclavage. Thomas Fisher 2. We really have no idea why Thoreau checked this out, but I will note in passing that the volume does contain information pertaining to the town of Saffron Walden in England. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
• pages 60. Review: The British and Foreign Temperance Advocate, vol. 2; The British and Foreign Temperance Herald, vol. 4. Thomas Fisher • pages 60-64. Review: John Holland’s Cruciana. Illustrations of the most striking aspects under which the Cross of Christ, and symbols derived from it, have been contemplated by Piety, Superstition, Imagination, and Taste. John Gough Nichols • pages 64-67. Review: First Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales. Thomas Fisher [Originator: “T.F.”] • pages 68. Review: E. Churton’s Oriental Annual for 1836. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 68. Review: Mrs. Alaric Watts’s The New Year’s Gift and Juvenile Souvenir. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 69. Review: Jenning’s Landscape Annual for 1836 (text by Thomas Roscoe and drawings by David Roberts). The Reverend John Mitford • pages 69. Review: Smith and Elder’s Friendship’s Offering and Winter’s Wreath for 1836. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 69. Review: William Darton’s The New Year’s Token for 1836. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 69-70. Review: P. Fisher [William Andrew Chatto]’s The Angler’s Souvenir. The Reverend John Mitford THE ANGLER’S SOUVENIR • pages 70. Review: Frederick Shoberl’s The Forget Me Not. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 70-71. Review: The Christian Keepsake, and Missionary Annual (ed. William Ellis). The Reverend John Mitford • pages 71. Review: The Cabinet of Modern Art, and Literary Souvenir (ed. Alaric Alexander Watts). The Reverend John Mitford • pages 71. Review: Fisher’s Drawing-room Scrap-Book, 1836. With Poetical Illustrations by L.E.L. [Letitia Elizabeth Landon]. John Gough Nichols • pages 71-72. Review: Flowers of Loveliness. John Gough Nichols • pages 72. Review: Tilt’s Comic Almanac for 1836. John Gough Nichols • pages 72. Review: William Beattie’s Scotland. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 72. Review: C.R. Bond’s Truth’s Triumph, a poem on the Reformation. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 72. Review: John Graham’s A Vision of fair Spirits. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 77-78. S:. “Catalogue of the 11th Part of Mr. [Richard] Heber’s Library (Manuscripts).” The Reverend John Mitford • pages 80-82. S:. “Society of Antiquaries.” John Gough Nichols • pages 87-88. Obituary: Henry Charles Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort. John Gough Nichols • pages 88-90. Obituary: Lord Robert Manners. John Gough Nichols • pages 90-91. Obituary: Sir Thomas Elmsley Croft. Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas • pages 93-94. Obituary: The Reverend Luke Booker. The Reverend —— Booker, son of the Reverend Luke Booker • pages 94-98. Obituary: James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. W.B. Morgan • pages 99. Obituary: Charles Perkins Gwilt. Joseph Gwilt • pages 100. Obituary: Letitia Matilda Hawkins. —— Hawkins, brother of deceased • pages 106. S:. Remarks on the inscription “IHS.” John Gough Nichols • pages 106. L:. Query re parish registers. John Southerden Burn [Originator: “J.S.B.”] • pages 106. S:. Note on the unicorn emblem. Henry Gwyn • pages 107-118. Article: Thomas Frognall Dibdin’s Reminiscences of a Literary Life (cont.). The Reverend John Mitford HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
• pages 121-125. Review: “State of the Church Missionaries in the East India [Josiah Pratt’s Sermon preached in the Chapel of Lambeth Palace... at the Consecration of the Right the Reverend Daniel Corrie, LL.D. Lord Bishop of Madras; Alexander Duff’s The Church of Scotland’s India Mission].” Thomas Fisher [Originator: “T.F.”] • pages 129-132. Review: William Thomas Brande’s Characters of Philosophers. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 132-135. L:. “On the Migration of Birds.” The Reverend John Mitford [Originator: “J.M.”] • pages 135-137. L:. “Londiniana, No. III [Roman Antiquities in Eastcheap and Newgate-street].” Alfred John Kempe [Originator: “A.J.K.”] • pages 137-144. Article: “Grammar School of St. Olave’s Southwark [cont.].” George Richard Corner [Originator: “G.R.C.”] • pages 146-147. L:. “Mr. [Charles] Richardson’s Dictionary.” The Reverend Joseph Hunter [Originator: “A Correspondent”] • pages 147-154. Article: “Account of Theobalds Palace, Herts.” John Gough Nichols [Originator: “J.G.N.”] • pages 154-157. V:. “The Ipswich Ball, described in a Letter from Miss Julia Mandeville, at Ipswich, to her Mother the Hon. Mrs. Mandeville, at Roehampton.” The Reverend John Mitford [Originator: “J. Mandeville”] • pages 157-160. Review: Joseph Beaumont’s Original Poems in English and Latin. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 161-164. Review: Matthew Gregory Lewis’s Journal of a West India Proprietor. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 164-165. Review: William Carus Wilson’s Helps to the Building of Churches and Parsonage- houses. Edward John Carlos • pages 165-167. Review: Joseph Mendham’s The Life and Pontificate of St. Pius V. The Reverend Joseph Mendham (reviewing his own work) • pages 167-168. Review: William Rae Wilson’s Records of a Route through France and Italy. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 168-169. Review: The Prometheus of Aeschylus, and the Electra of Sophocles (trans. George Croker Fox). The Reverend John Mitford • pages 169-171. Review: William Dansey’s Horae Decanicae Rurales. John Bruce • pages 172-173. Review: The Architectural Magazine (ed. John Claudius Loudon), vol. 2, nos. 18- 22. Edward John Carlos • pages 173-174. Review: Samuel Thomas Bloomfield’s The Greek Testament (2nd ed.). Thomas Hartwell Horne • pages 174-180. Review: William Phelps’s The History and Antiquities of Somersetshire. Alfred John Kempe • pages 180-181. Review: William Lisle Bowles’s Scenes and Shadows of Days departed. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 181. Review: Joshua Wilson’s An historical Inquiry concerning the Principles, Opinions, and Usages of the English Presbyterians. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 182. Review: Child’s History of Women. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 182. Review: J. G. Seymer’s The Romance of Ancient Egypt. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 182-183. Review: Chart of Britannia Romana. Alfred John Kempe • pages 183. Review: An Introduction to the Study of Birds. John Britton • pages 183. Review: Anne Rodwell’s The Juvenile Pianist. Mary Anne Iliffe Nichols • pages 183. Review: The Sentiment of Flowers. Mary Anne Iliffe Nichols • pages 183. Review: A Voyage of Discovery. Mary Anne Iliffe Nichols HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
• pages 184. Review: Thomas Kibble Hervey’s The Book of Christmas. John Gough Nichols • pages 184-185. Review: The Clerical Guide, and Ecclesiastical Directory. John Gough Nichols • pages 185. Review: Harmony of the Gospels. John Gough Nichols • pages 185. Review: The Four Gospels, arranged in a Series of Tabular Parallels. John Gough Nichols • pages 185. Review: The Companion to the Almanac. John Gough Nichols • pages 185. Review: Samuel Butler’s A Sketch of Ancient and Modern Geography. Mary Anne Iliffe Nichols • pages 185. Review: Jane Kinderley Stanford’s A Lady’s Gift, or Woman as she ought to be. Mary Anne Iliffe Nichols • pages 185-186. S:. “The Lawrence Gallery.” W. B. Morgan • pages 187. S:. “St. George’s Church, Shrewsbury.” Henry Pidgeon • pages 187. Review: Richard Westall and John Martin. Illustrations to the BIBLE. John Gough Nichols • pages 187-188. Review: Thomas Roscoe’s Wanderings through North Wales, pts. 5-10. John Gough Nichols • pages 188. Review: Clarkson Stanfield’s Coast Scenery, pts. 3-6. John Gough Nichols • pages 188. Review: William Finden’s Byron Beauties. Mary Anne Iliffe Nichols • pages 193-194. S:. “Society of Antiquaries.” John Gough Nichols • pages 200. Obituary: Mary Amelia, Marchioness of Salisbury. John Gough Nichols • pages 200-201. Obituary: William Humble Ward, 10th Lord Ward. John Gough Nichols • pages 201. Obituary: George Charles Venables Vernon, 4th Lord Vernon. John Gough Nichols • pages 201. Obituary: Lieut.-Gen. Thomas Mahon, 2nd Lord Hartland. John Gough Nichols • pages 201-202. Obituary: John Crewe, 2nd Lord Crewe. John Gough Nichols • pages 202. Obituary: Charles Robert Lindsay. Thomas Fisher • pages 202. Obituary: Major-Gen. George Prole (partially using text of a printed obituary). Thomas Fisher • pages 202-203. Obituary: Colonel Sweney Toone. Thomas Fisher • pages 203. Obituary: Col. Thomas Duer Broughten (partially using text of Athenaeum obituary). Thomas Fisher • pages 204-205. Obituary: Major David Price. Thomas Fisher • pages 207. Obituary: Thomas Brooke. Thomas Fisher • pages 207. Obituary: William Fraser. Thomas Fisher • pages 218. L:. Query re the location of drawings by Cowper. The Reverend George Cornelius Gorham [Originator: “G.C.G.”] • pages 218. S:. Editorial response to query by “C.H.” re the Anglo-Saxon oath. John Bruce • pages 218. L:. Query re genealogical information on Chaplin family. Henry Gwyn [Originator: “H.G.”] • pages 219-228. Review: Nathaniel Parker Willis’s Pencillings by the Way. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 228-237. Article: “New Record Commission. No. IV [the Chancellor’s Roll of 3 John].” John Bruce • pages 237-240. Article: “The Gate-House, Westminster.” John Gough Nichols [Originator: “J.G.N.”] • pages 242-244. Article: “Letter of the late S.T. Coleridge [to Marten; dated 1794; printed with no editorial comment].” The Reverend William Lisle Bowles [the transmitter of the letter] • pages 245. Article: “Portrait of Dr. [Samuel] Parr presented to Harrow School.” Dr. John Johnstone • pages 254. L:. “Wace’s Roll of the Norman Chiefs.” Edgar Taylor [Originator: “T.P.B.”] HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
• 254n. S:. Note on Wace’s Roll of the Norman chiefs. John Gough Nichols [Originator: “Edit.”] • pages 256-259. Article: “Church of St. Bene’t Fink, London.” Henry Gwyn [Originator: “H.G.”] • pages 261-264. L:. “Letters of John George Graevius.” John Holmes [Originator: “J.H.”] • pages 265-271. Review: Andrew Ure’s Philosophy of Manufactures. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 271-272. Review: Memorials of Oxford (ed. James Ingram), nos. 33-38. Edward John Carlos • pages 273-275. Review: John Innes’s Letter to Lord Glenelg... on the working of the new system in the British West India Colonies. Thomas Fisher [Originator: “T.F.”] • pages 275-279. Review: Report of the Select Committee on Agriculture and Report of Proceedings of the Agricultural Meetings in London. Samuel Solly • pages 279-280. Review: The World, a Poem. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 280-281. Review: Edward Moxon’s Sonnets, pt. 2. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 282-286. Review: John Greenwood’s A Picturesque Tour to Thornton Monastery. John Gough Nichols • pages 286-287. Review: James Holman’s Voyage around the World. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 287. Review: Deacon’s Analysis of the Parliamentary Proceedings of the Session 1835. John Gough Nichols • pages 288. S:. “St. Saviour’s Church, Southwark.” Alfred John Kempe • pages 289. Review: Landscape-Historical Illustrations of Scotland, and the Waverley Novels, from drawings by J.M.W. Turner. John Gough Nichols • pages 289. Review: William Finden’s Portrait and Landscape Illustrations of Lord Byron’s Life and Works [by Thomas Moore]. John Gough Nichols • pages 289. Review: Charles John Smith’s Facsimiles of Historical and Literary Curiosities. John Gough Nichols • pages 289. Review: J. Sainsbury’s Thirty Fac-similes of the different Signatures of the Emperor Napoleon. John Gough Nichols • pages 293-296. S:. “Society of Antiquaries.” John Gough Nichols • pages 306. Obituary: Henry Hood, 2nd Viscount Hood. John Gough Nichols • pages 306. Obituary: William Gustavus Frederick, Count Bentinck Rhoon. John Gough Nichols • pages 306-307. Obituary: Col. William John Gore. John Gough Nichols • pages 310-312. Obituary: The Reverend Edward Burton (text from Oxford Herald). Dr. Philip Bliss [?] • pages 312. Obituary: Sir Henry Philip Hoghton. John Gough Nichols • pages 312-313. Obituary: Sir George Cornewall. John Gough Nichols • pages 313. Obituary: Sir John Ely Parker. John Gough Nichols • pages 313-314. Obituary: Sir John Kennaway (based on obituary in Exeter newspaper). John Gough Nichols • pages 314. Obituary: Sir Thomas Harvie Farquhar. John Gough Nichols • pages 314. Obituary: Sir William Henry Cooper. John Gough Nichols • pages 314. Obituary: Capt. Sir James Dunbar. John Gough Nichols • pages 314-315. Obituary: Sir Robert Dundas. John Gough Nichols • pages 315. Obituary: Lt.-Gen. Sir John Hamilton. John Gough Nichols • pages 321-322. Obituary: John Phillips. The Reverend James Ingram • pages 323-324. Obituary: Hugh Leycester. John Gough Nichols • pages 324. Obituary: Jabez Henry. John Gough Nichols • pages 324-326. Obituary: Thomas Walker. W. B. Morgan • pages 326. Obituary: Henry Humphrey Goodhall. Thomas Fisher • pages 327. Obituary: Robert Bickerstaff. John Bowyer Nichols • pages 327-328. Obituary: Robert Davies. Henry Pidgeon HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
• pages 338. L:. Note re a work in progress by James Boaden re the Theatres Royal of England. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 338. L:. Note on errata in his recent article. Edgar Taylor [Originator: “T.P.B.”] • pages 339-350. Article: “Notes to Boswell’s Life of Dr. Johnson, Vol. II [cont.].” The Reverend John Mitford • pages 358-361. Article: “Memoir of Richard Pearson, M.D.” The Reverend Richard Pearson • pages 361-365. Review: John Claudius Loudon’s Arboretum Britannicum, nos. 8-14. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 369. Article: “Reliquary at Shipley, Sussex.” John Gough Nichols • pages 369-372. Article: “Londiniana, No. IV.” Alfred John Kempe [Originator: “A.J.K.”] • pages 376-377. L:. “Families of Nicoll and Hedges.” Charles Edward Long [Originator: “l.”] • pages 377-378. L:. “Putney Church and Bishop West’s Chapel.” Edward John Carlos [Originator: “E.I.C.”] • pages 385-394. Review: George Henry Law, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Remarks on the present Distresses of the Poor. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 394-395. Review: Debrett’s Peerage (21st ed.). John Gough Nichols • pages 395-396. Review: Japhet in Search of his Father. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 396-397. Review: James Augustus St. John’s Margaret Ravenscroft. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 397-398. Review: My Aunt Pontypool. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 398-399. Review: Lady Emily Stuart Wortley’s Travelling Sketches. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 399-400. Review: Robert Montgomery Martin’s History of the British Colonies, vol. 4: Possessions in Africa and Austral-Asia. Thomas Fisher • pages 401-402. Review: A Guide through the Town of Shrewsbury. John Gough Nichols • pages 402-403. Peter Austin Nuttall’s Juvenal’s Satires.... Three Editions:— 1. With a Linear Verbal Translation; 2. Translated into English Verse, by W [illiam] Gifford; and 3. With a Linear Verbal Translation and Gifford’s Poetical Version. Dr. Peter Austin Nuttall • pages 403-404. Review: Memoirs of Mirabeau, vols. 3 and 4. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 404. Review: Lancelot Sharpe’s Nomenclator Poeticus. The Reverend James Tate [Originator: “C.P.M.”] • pages 404-405. Review: John Hobart Caunter’s Romance of History: India. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 405. Review: Henry Thomas de la Beche’s How to Observe — Geology. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 405-406. Review: William Yate’s Account of New Zealand. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 406. Review: George Payne Rainsford James’s On the Educational Institutions of Germany. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 406. Review: Alexander Smith’s The Philosophy of Morals. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 406. Review: Land and Sea Tales. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 406. Review: Mahmoud. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 406-407. Review: George Robert Gleig’s The Soldier’s Help to the Knowledge of Divine Truths. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 407. Review: Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 407. Review: The Parables explained to a Child. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 407. Review: Oswald Charles Wood’s The History of the Assassins. The Reverend John Mitford HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
• pages 407. Review: Piers Edmund Butler’s The Rationality of Revealed Religion. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 407. Review: Hewett Cottrell Watson’s The New Botanist’s Guide, vol. 1: England and Wales. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 407. Review: Alexander Negris’s Xenophontis Anabasis. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 407. Review: William Hull’s The Consolations of Christianity. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 407. Review: William Edward Trenchard’s Sermons. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 407. Review: Leonard Jenyns [Blomefield]’s Manual of British Vertebrated Animals. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 407-408. Review: Posthumous Records of a London Clergyman (ed. John Hobart Caunter). The Reverend John Mitford • pages 408. Review: Cerceau’s Life and Times of Rienzi. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 408. Review: The Parricide. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 408. Review: Plebeians and Patricians. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 408. Review: The English Boy at the Cape. Mary Anne Iliffe Nichols • pages 408-409. Review: John Yonge Akerman’s Coins of the Romans relating to Britain. John Gough Nichols • pages 412-413. S:. “Bibliotheca Heberiana [re Richard Heber’s library].” Samuel Leigh Sotheby • pages 414-415. S:. “Society of Antiquaries.” John Gough Nichols • pages 425. Obituary: John Perceval, 4th Earl of Egmont. John Gough Nichols • pages 425-427. Obituary: William Van Mildert, Bishop of Durham. John Gough Nichols • pages 427-430. Obituary: William Scott, Baron Stowell. John Gough Nichols • pages 430-431. Obituary: Lady Frances Wright-Wilson. John Gough Nichols • pages 433. Obituary: Sir James Colquhoun. John Gough Nichols • pages 433. Obituary: Sir John James Scott Douglas. John Gough Nichols • pages 433-435. Obituary: Lieut.-Gen. Sir William Inglis. John Gough Nichols • pages 436-437. Obituary: John Gillies. The Reverend William Dealtry • pages 437-438. Obituary: Elizabeth Kemble Whitlock (sister of Sarah Siddons). W. B. Morgan • pages 441. Obituary: Barak Longmate the Younger. John Gough Nichols • pages 450. L:. Re supposed MS. of Philo Byblius. William Henry Black [Originator: “W.H.B.”] • pages 451-459. Review: E. G. Wilkinson’s Topography of Thebes, and General View of Egypt. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 477-481. Article: “On Norman and Early Poetry. No. I. The Romances of Tristan, and the Norman Metrical Chronicles.” Thomas Wright • pages 485. Article: “Robert Wilson, the Botanist.” The Reverend John Hodgson [Originator: “V.H.”] • pages 485-488. L:. “The Celtic Language.” Duncan Forbes [Originator: “Fior-Ghael”] • pages 488. L:. “Emendations to Shakespeare.” F. Wrangton [Originator: “F.W.”] • pages 489. Article: “Ancient Mansion in South Petherton, Somersetshire.” John Chessell Buckler [Originator: “J.C.B.”] • pages 493-497. Article: “Mr. [Edmond] Malone’s Library at Oxford.” John Payne Collier • pages 497-498. L:. “Account of Aldfield, near Ripon.” John Richard Walbran [Originator: “R.d.C.”] • pages 501. V:. “The Aldine Anchor.” The Reverend John Mitford • pages 501-504. Article: “Retrospective Review. Chaucer.—No. I. Introductory.” Thomas Wright • pages 505-509. Review: Thomas Noon Talfourd’s Ion, a Tragedy. The Reverend John Mitford HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
• pages 509-511. Review: Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s A History of Modern Wiltshire (cont.): William Henry Black’s Hundred of South Damerham, George Matcham’s Hundred of Downton, and Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s Hundred of Cawden. The Reverend Joseph Hunter • pages 511-512. Review: Joseph Mendham’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum a Sixto V. The Reverend Joseph Mendham (reviewing his own work) • pages 512-513. Review: “Biographies of the House of Commons [Random Recollections of the House of Commons, from the year 1830 to the close of 1835; The Parliamentary Pocket Companion for 1836; Richard B. Mosse’s The Parliamentary Guide; The Parliamentary Test Book for 1835; Richard [?] Gooch’s Parliamentary Pledge Book; Richard [?] Gooch’s Parliamentary Vote-Book, 1836; The Assembled Commons, 1836; Thomas Brittain Vacher’s Parliamentary Companion for 1836].” John Gough Nichols • pages 514-515. Review: John MacGregor’s My Note Book. The Reverend —— [William Langstaff (?)] Weddall • pages 515-518. Review: William Wallen’s History and Antiquities of the Round Church at Little Maplestead, Essex. Edward John Carlos • pages 518-519. Review: John Stockdale Hardy’s An Attempt to appropriate a Monument... to the memory of Mary de Bohun, Countess of Derby. John Gough Nichols • pages 519-520. Review: Anna Eliza Bray’s A Description of that part of Devonshire lying between the Tamar and the Tavy, in a series of Letters to R [obert] Southey. The Reverend John Mitford [Originator: “Syl. Urban”] • pages 521. Review: Henry Sewell Stokes’s Vale of Lanherne. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 521. Review: [Henry?] Colman’s Views in Normandy, Picardy, &c., pt. 2. John Gough Nichols • pages 521. Review: Eupaedia: or Letters to a Mother on the watchful care of her infant. Eliza Baker Nichols • pages 521-522. Review: A Turbulent Spirit unreasonable, wicked, and dangerous; What is the use of these Friendly Societies?; Pray, which is the way to the Savings’ Bank; The nature and design of the New Poor Laws explained; The Neglect and Profanation of the Sabbath, their own Punishment. Thomas Hartwell Horne • pages 522. Review: Life of Talleyrand, vol. 3. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 522. Review: William Jowett’s The Christian Visitor. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 522. Review: Caroline Bowles’s Summer Visits to Cottages in a Country Village. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 522. Review: John Edward Nassau Molesworth’s The Penny Sunday Reader. John Gough Nichols • pages 522. Review: Graphic Illustrations of the Life and Times of Samuel Johnson. John Gough Nichols • pages 522. Review: C. Knight’s The Pictorial Bible. John Gough Nichols • pages 523-527. S:. “Exhibition of Designs offered for the New Houses of Parliament.” Edward John Carlos • pages 528. Review: Engravings from the Works of the late Sir Thomas Lawrence, pt. 1. John Gough Nichols • pages 528. Review: Charles Heath’s Drawing-room Portfolio. John Gough Nichols • pages 528. L:. Allan Cunningham’s Gallery of Pictures of English and Foreign Masters. John Bowyer Nichols • pages 528. Review: Louisa Corbaux’s Studies of Heads from Nature. John Gough Nichols • pages 528. Review: H. Winkles and B. Winkles, Cathedrals, pts. 4-16. John Gough Nichols HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
• pages 529. Review: H. Winkles and B. Winkles, Continental Cathedrals, pts. 1-4. John Gough Nichols • pages 534. S:. “Society of Antiquaries.” John Gough Nichols • pages 545-546. Obituary: Admiral John Ferrier. W. B. Morgan [?] • pages 553. Obituary: Henry Roscoe. J. A. Morgan • pages 553-555. Obituary: The Reverend Richard Valpy. Henry Prater • pages 555-556. Obituary: The Reverend George Rogers. The Reverend John Ford • pages 570. L:. Genealogical remarks and queries re the Paisley family. J. B. Gardiner [Originator: “J.B.G.”] • pages 570. S:. Response to “J.M.”’s comments on the inscription “IHS.” John Gough Nichols • pages 570. S:. Editorial comments on a drawing (submitted by “A Constant Reader”) of a cross- bow. Alfred John Kempe • pages 571-583. Article: “On the Antiquity of Trees, (from Professor Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus de Candolle,) in a Letter to Edward Jesse, Esq.” The Reverend John Mitford [Originator: “J.M.”] • pages 594-595. L:. “Origin of ‘God save the King.’” J.R. Wilson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne [Originator: “J.R.W.”] • pages 595-601. Review: Reginaldi Monachi Dunelmensis Libellus de Admirandis Beati Cuthberti Virtutibus quae Novellis patratae sunt Temporibus Reginald of Durham on the Miracles of St. Cuthbert (Surtees Society, vol. 1). John Bruce. • pages 605-606. L:. “Monument at Britford, Wilts.” John Gough Nichols [Originator: “D.H.”] • pages 611-613. Review: John Eliot’s Poems, consisting of Epistles and Epigrams, Satyrs, Epitaphs and Elegies, Songs and Sonnets, 1658. The Reverend John Mitford [Originator: “J.M.”] • pages 614-616. Article: “On Early Norman and French Poetry. No. II. The Mysteries and Miracle Plays.” Thomas Wright • pages 617-618. Review: Robert Southey’s The Works of Cowper. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 618-619. Review: Edward Osler’s The Life of Lord Exmouth. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 619-621. Review of volume that eventually Henry Thoreau would own: Henry Hart Milman’s NALA AND DAMAYANTI, AND OTHER POEMS, FROM THE SANSCRIT. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 621-622. Review: Edward Lytton Bulwer-Lytton’s RIENZI. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 622-626. Review: Richard Griffin Neville, 3rd Baron Braybrooke, The History of Audley End [Saffron Walden]. John Gough Nichols • pages 626-627. Review: Thomas Maude’s The Schoolboy. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 627-628. Review: John Kaye, Bishop of Lincoln, Some account of the Life and Writings of Clement, Bishop of Alexandria. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 628-630. Review: Charles Richard Sumner, Bishop of Winchester, The Free Course of the Word. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 631-632. Review: Thomas Keightley’s The History of Rome. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 632. Review: Thucydides de Bello Peloponnesiaco (ed. Franz Joseph Goeller). The Reverend John Mitford • pages 632. Review: Edward Johnstone’s The Life of Christ, a Manual of Elementary Religious Knowledge, intended chiefly for the Young. The Reverend John Mitford • pages 632-633. Review: William Caveler’s Select Specimens of Gothic Architecture. Edward John Carlos • pages 633-639. S:. “Exhibition of Designs for the New Houses of Parliament.” Edward John Carlos • pages 639. Review: Henry Shaw’s The Encyclopedia of Ornament, no. 1. John Gough Nichols • pages 647-648. S:. “Society of Antiquaries.” John Gough Nichols HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
• pages 654-655. Review: “Theatrical Register. Covent Garden.” W. B. Morgan • pages 657-658. Obituary: Bowyer Edward Sparke, Bishop of Ely. John Gough Nichols • pages 658-659. Obituary: Henry Ryder, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. John Gough Nichols • pages 659. Obituary: Christopher Butson, Bishop of Killaloe and Clonfert. John Gough Nichols • pages 663-664. Obituary: William Morton Pitt. John Gough Nichols • pages 666-670. Obituary: William Godwin. W. B. Morgan • pages 670-671. Obituary: John Bell. John Bruce and —— • page 671. Obituary: Charles Millard. Thomas Amyot HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1840
Percy Bysshe Shelley’s ESSAYS, LETTERS FROM ABROAD, TRANSLATIONS AND FRAGMENTS, and A DEFENCE OF POETRY.
Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft Shelley’s LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT FRENCH WRITERS ... (Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard).3
EMINENT FRENCH WRITERS, I EMINENT FRENCH WRITERS, II
Mary Shelley’s timelines for the lives of these writers:
Montaigne Rabelais Corneille Rochefoucauld Molière La Fontaine 1533-1592 1483-1553 1606-1684 1613-1680 1622-1673 1621-1695
Pascal Madame de Sévigné Boileau Racine Fénélon Voltaire 1623-1662 1626-1696 1636-1711 1639-1699 1651-1715 1694-1778
Rousseau Condorcet Mirabeau Madame Roland Madame De Staël 1766-1817 1712-1778 1744-1794 1749-1791 1754-1793 HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
The Kouroo Contexture’s thumbnails for the lives of these writers:
Michel de François Rabelais Pierre Corneille François VI, duc Jean-Baptiste Jean de La Montaigne de la Rochefou- Poquelin Fontaine cauld, prince de (Molière) Marcillac
Blaise Madame de Sévigné Nicolas Boi- Jean Racine François de François- Pascal leau-Despréaux Salignac de la Marie Arouet Mothe-Fénélon (Voltaire)
Jean- Marie-Jean- Honoré Gabriel Marie-Jeanne Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Jacques Antoine-Nicolas de Riqueti, comte Roland de la baronne de Staël-Holstein Rousseau Caritat, marquis de de Mirabeau Platière (Madame (Madame De Staël) Condorcet Roland)
3. According to a reading list now stored at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, California, Thoreau studied this in about 1841. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1851
February 1, Saturday: Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft Shelley died in London of the tumor on her brain.
The graves of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin at Old St Pancras Church were opened and the remains of the parents repositioned with the remains of the daughter, in Bournemouth Churchyard. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1873
William Godwin’s ESSAYS, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, BY THE LATE WILLIAM GODWIN, ED. C. KEGAN PAUL (created out of a manuscript “The Genius of Christianity Unveiled”; London: H.S. King). HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1888
Henry S. Salt’s LITERARY SKETCHES and PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY: A MONOGRAPH.
LITERARY SKETCHES PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1927
In HENRY THOREAU: TRANSCENDENTAL ECONOMIST, part of the three-volume MAIN CURRENTS IN AMERICAN THOUGHT, Professor Vernon Louis Parrington characterized Henry Thoreau as a radical economist in the tradition of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and William Godwin, dedicated to an exploration of “the true meaning of wealth.”
THOREAU AFTER GODWIN
(He did not pretend that Thoreau had been familiar with Godwin’s political or economic thought, only that Thoreau had repeated some of Godwin’s key insights.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
1977
When the files of the “Sacco and Vanzetti” case were made public, they proved to contain wiretap transcripts indicating that the state of Massachusetts had been tapping the telephone of Felix Frankfurter (this was the Frankfurter who would later serve as a Justice of the US Supreme Court) while he had been attempting to defend them from the prosecutors of the state of Massachusetts.
Michael Meyer’s SEVERAL MORE LIVES TO LIVE: THOREAU’S POLITICAL REPUTATION IN AMERICA (Westport CT: Greenwood Press). In 1995, the book would be reviewed by Wynn Yarborough of Virginia Commonwealth University as follows: Criticism of Henry Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government” changed dramatically from the 1920s to the 1970s. Michael Meyer’s SEVERAL MORE LIVES TO LIVE: THOREAU’S POLITICAL REPUTATION IN AMERICA shows the progression of opinion surrounding Thoreau and his politics. In the 1920s, an age of relative affluence, Thoreau was popularly seen as an anarchist, a rebel. In the critics’ minds, but there were mixed opinions. Most of these reflect a reaction to the materialism of the time. Eliseo Vivas noted that Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government,” in The New Student, was “... one of the first native attacks upon American Imperialism....” (34) Vivas was writing when the US was involved in many countries in South America and Central America. Vivas saw Thoreau’s politics, especially his stance on resistance to government, as troubling, “Thoreau’s ideals are inoperative in the real, everyday world, and because he will not compromise his ideals, at all, they have no effect upon the world: they are politically useless” (35). In the 1960s, we will see how useful Thoreau becomes. Another critic, Vernon Parrington, would praise Thoreau as truly original and independent. “Parrington transforms what several of his contemporaries [such as Atkinson] considered to be Thoreau’s selfish tenacity into a virtue. Thoreau’s unwillingness to compromise was not a sign of perversity but of principle” (40). The political anarchist image of Thoreau does not disturb Parrington, who considered him American in political thought: “Parrington places Thoreau in the liberal tradition by tracing the political ideas in “CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE” back to William Godwin’s POLITICAL JUSTICE (page 409, Parrington), which helped inform Jefferson...” (42). The 1920s criticism also shows the one direction criticism of Thoreau would maintain, in some slight degree, throughout the century. Brooks Atkinson, a conservative critic, bashed Thoreau for his politics, calling him “a self-contained, unsocial being, a troglodyte of sorts” (36). But it is not his personal attacks on Thoreau that emerge as important; in fact we could disregard his opinion except for the fact that underlying his charges against Thoreau’s “feline” politicism is his great respect for Thoreau, the naturalist. This will reappear throughout the century, the focus away from the political towards the naturalist. Here would be a good place to note why. Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government” clashes with his defense of John Brown. In one he advocates non-violent resistance; in the other he defends the actions of violence. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
This is where critics find the clash of logic, and many simply ignore his politics, because they are considered inconsistent. I would argue that Thoreau is human, subject to emotion and became quite involved in the slavery question. Brown was an individual doing what he thought necessary; Thoreau opts for another course, one of nonviolence, although the implication in “Resistance to Civil Government,” is that violence is prevalent throughout history. Here is where the student of Thoreau must make a decision, Should Thoreau be held to a philosophical tract he wrote in 1848 as compared to “A PLEA FOR CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN,” written in 1860 at a time of great tension about slavery? It must be remembered that Thoreau did not join a society for abolition, but rather vocalized his thoughts on injustice. He is political in thought, and as proven from his own action, a practitioner of non-violent resistance. In the 1930s, James MacKaye would turn to the politics and denounce them. MacKaye saw Thoreau’s politics showing no cooperation and devoid of reason. Meyer sees him as an extension of the twenties critics, “In this, MacKaye followed commentators of the twenties. It is one thing for a person to regulate his own economy and thereby free himself from want, but it is quite another to repudiate government.” MacKaye continues in the tradition of Atkinson, whereas Blankenship, continues in the tradition of Parrington. The thirties marked a different era for America, the flirtation with communism, trying to find a solution for the Great Depression. “[H]is radicalism was no longer considered to be so shocking by most commentators of the thirties. His radicalism was studied even within the academy” (58). It should be remembered that it was not academics who were doing the writing on “Resistance to Civil Government” but journalists and social critics. “Until the forties, the best criticism on Thoreau (using any critical standard for excellence) is to be found in journalistic pieces, or occasional chapters on Thoreau in books — most of them written by critics outside the academy” (59). Meyer goes further to state that “There was not one American analysis of even article length on “CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE” ... prior to the 1940s. In the thirties there was a strong tendency to use Thoreau first and ask questions later” (74). There was an avoidance of the politics in this essay, although people used him and his simple economy to protest the effects of industry, especially in an age of the collapse of the American economy. The 1940s show some of the universal appeal of Thoreau, in terms of his usefulness. Thoreau was used as guidance for those who opposed the war as “conscientious objectors.” A society gearing up for war might have trouble appreciating Thoreau. Thomas Lyle Collins, one critic who was opposed to the war, “uses Thoreau as a rationale for American isolationism and noninterventionism” (85). Max Cosman used Thoreau to justify World War II based on the differences between the War on Mexico and WWII. Here we see a reconciling of “RESISTANCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT” and “A PLEA FOR CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN.” In “A Plea,” Thoreau foresees circumstances where he might have to “kill or be killed”; this applies to his attitude against slavery. Cosman sees the same attitude towards the Nazis. Cosman “calls attention to this passage in order to conclude with the major point of his article, which is that HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
Thoreau speaks to Americans in 1944” (86). Here we see the usefulness of Thoreau by dissenters and by consenters. The Thoreau Society was founded in 1941 by Walter Harding who saw Thoreau as being in both camps in the debate over the war. He saw Thoreau “[as] not a dangerous isolationist but an individual” (94). Harding does go further to see Thoreau as primarily a non-violent pacifist, ignoring his support of John Brown. Meyer seems to see Harding as doing what Thoreau himself would have loathed, “deification.” F.O. Matthiessen connects Thoreau with socialism in AMERICAN RENAISSANCE. Matthiessen was concerned with the text, the art itself, not the artist so much. Matthiessen said that Thoreau’s individualism was inflated, that Thoreau believed in collective action. Meyer, while lauding the contribution of Matthiessen to study of WALDEN, saw Matthiessen as too political in his assessment of Thoreau, “Matthiessen allows his enthusiasm and appreciation for Thoreau’s art to interfere with a view of politics that would be more in keeping with his own values, values which were highly suspicious of Transcendental individualism” (101). Please remember that Matthiessen is noted as changing the face of American criticism from the artist to the art. The 1950s, the age of McCarthyism, reflected the ignorance of his politics again. The influence of Matthiessen is evident in how Thoreau’s political thought diminished and literary art form increased, “Commentaries on Thoreau tended to be about how he expressed his ideas rather than about what his ideas were” (110). Stanley Hyman, chief critic during the fifties and one of the most respected scholars on Thoreau, cites style as more important that politics in Thoreau. He follows, of course, Matthiessen. Meyer traces this view of elevated artist as tied to Hymen’s personal view, which once again shows us the “usefulness” of Thoreau. Hyman places Thoreau in the “compartmentalized functionaries” of Emerson; one is an artist and that is it. Henry Eulaus, a political scientist, saw Thoreau as promoting his own version of the nation-state. Eulaus “reasons that because liberals have convinced themselves that Thoreau was a liberal collectivist, they overlook his self-righteousness and fall into the same trap of “ethical absolution” that he did” (124). Eulaus sees Thoreau as close-minded and concerned with “the individual conscience as the bedrock of all action” (124). Eulaus saw the dangers of both “enlightened liberalism” and McCarthyism and, more importantly, the need for compromise, so it is easy to see why he would have problems with someone like Thoreau. This is the first critical essay on the politics of Thoreau, according to Meyer. In the 1960s, Thoreau became not only relevant but almost a popular icon. “He became important to the reform impulse of the 1960s, and as that impulse spread so too did Thoreau’s political reputation” (152). Carried over from the fifties was the beginning of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King would use Thoreau to show the path of nonviolent resistance, but once again he was using Thoreau, not studying him. “RESISTANCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT” was used by everyone from the Beats to the Pacifists. Staughton Lynd, a New Left historian, claimed that Thoreau was both violent and nonviolent, HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
which would seem to follow from the dichotomy of messages in “RESISTANCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT” and “A PLEA FOR CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN.” Meyer claims that “Lynd does not make an issue of the means of reform, because he is interested in gathering “non-aligned individuals” of the new radicalism under one umbrella in order that they might discover what unites them-their insistence on direct action as a response to injustice” (165). Some attacks on Thoreau came out of this period that still focused on his isolationism and his “estrange[ment] from collective action and the specific needs of the people” (170). But one of the most original perspectives to come out in the sixties was a psychological interpretation of Thoreau. This came out of Carl Bode’s introduction to THE PORTABLE THOREAU, which he edited. Bode re-edited this edition in 1964 and drew on a Freudian approach to Thoreau, based on Raymond Gozzi’s work. Bode claims that Thoreau was “plagued by an ‘incipient homosexuality’” (page 111, Bode as quoted by Meyer, 173). Bode saw John Brown as a mythological father-figure for Thoreau. The hatred of father is translated into a hatred of state, of the paternalistic powerful government, according to Bode. In the same psychoanalytical mode, C. Roland Wagner writes “that much of Thoreau’s writing represents his unconscious struggle for a sexual identity” (Meyer 175). The 1970s saw Thoreau as the forefather of protest to the Vietnam War. THE NIGHT THOREAU SPENT IN JAIL by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee was a one-act play which centered on his protest of the Mexican War. It was quite successful and kept Thoreau alive in terms of the seventies, ushering in the Vietnam era. Meyer has the great last word by recalling Thoreau’s sense of humor and disgust, “washing of hands” in political matters: it “is important and chastening to be learned from Thoreau’s apolitical temperament, a temperament which resulted in his unwillingness to take politics seriously and his subsequent impulse to champion violence as a means of surgically removing evil from the world” (192).
“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project William Godwin HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: November 10, 2014 HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX
WILLIAM GODWIN WILLIAM GODWIN
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
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