much in the manner of which, in
the two generations since his death, Macaulay and the late Mr. J. R.
Green, have been the chief exponents. Hazlitt probably learnt this from
Godwin; and I think there is no doubt that Macaulay learnt it from
Hazlitt.

It may, however, be freely admitted that whatever Godwin had to say was
at least likely not to be prejudicially affected by the manner in which
he said it. And he had, as we have seen, a great deal to say in a great
many kinds. The "New Philosophy," as it was called, of the _Political
Justice_ was to a great extent softened, if not positively retracted, in
subsequent editions and publications; but its quality as first set forth
accounts both for the conquest which it, temporarily at least, obtained
over such minds as those of Wordsworth and Coleridge, and for the horror
with which it was regarded elsewhere. Godwin's system was not too
consistent, and many of its parts were borrowed more or less directly
from others: from Locke, from Hume, from the French materialists, from
Jonathan Edwards, and, by way of reaction as well as imitation, from
Rousseau. But Godwin's distinctive claim, if not exactly glory, is that
he was the first systematic Anarchist. His cardinal principle was that
government in itself, and with all its consequences of law, restriction,
punishment, etc., is bad, and to be got rid of. He combined this
(logically enough) with perfectibilism--supposing the individual to be
infinitely susceptible of "melioration" by the right use of reason--and
(rather illogically) with necessarianism. In carrying out his views he
not only did not hesitate at condemning religion, marriage, and all
other restrictions of the kind, but indulged in many curious crotchets
as to the uselessness, if not mischievousness, of gratitude and other
sentiments generally considered virtuous. The indefinite development of
the individual by reason and liberty, and the general welfare of the
community at large, were the only standards that he admitted. And it
should be said, to his credit, that he condemned the use of violence and
physical force _against_ government quite as strongly as their use _by_
government. The establishment of absolute liberty, in the confidence
that it will lead to absolute happiness, was, at first at any rate, the
main idea of the _Political Justice_, and it is easy to understand what
wild work it must have made with heads already heated by the
thunder-weather of change