FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
Vol. I
New York:
PRINTED FOR I. RILEY & Co.
BOOK-SELLERS, NO. I, CITY HOTEL.
1805.
PREFACE.
YET another novel from the same pen, which has twice before claimed the patience in this form. The unequivocal indulgence which has been extended to my two former attempts, renders me doubly solicitous not to forfeit the kindness I have experienced.
One caution I have particularly sought to exercise: "not to repeat, myself." Caleb Williams was a story of very surprising and uncomnmon events, but which were supposed to be entirely within the laws and established course of nature, as she operates in... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
Vol. I
New York:
PRINTED FOR I. RILEY & Co.
BOOK-SELLERS, NO. I, CITY HOTEL.
1805.
CHAPTER I.
I WAS the only son of my father. I was very young at the period of the death of my mother, and have retained scarcely any recollection of her. My father was so much affected by the loss of the amiable and affectionate partner of his days, that he resolved to withdraw forever from those scenes, where every object he saw was ssociated with the ideas of her kindness, her accomplishments, and her virtues: and, being habitually a lover of the sublime and romantic ... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER II
The proper topic of the narrative I am writing is the record of my errors, To write it, is the act of my pentinence and humiliation. I can expect however few persons to interest themselves respecting my errors, unless they are first informed what manner of man I am, what were my spontaneous and native dispositions, and whether I am such a one as that my errors are worthy of commiseration and pity. This must be my apology for the topic I am here to introduce, a topic on which all ingenous minds are disposed to be silent, and which shall in this place be passed over as flightly as possible, my beneficence and charities. I was fond of penetratin... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER III
AT the usual age I entered myself of the university of Oxford. I felt no strong propensity to this change; but I submitted to it, as to a thing in the regular order of proceeding, and to which it would be useless to object. I was so much accustomed to self-conversation as to have little inclination to mix in the world; and was to such a degree satisfied with my abilities, and progress, and capacity of directing my own studies and conduct, as not to look with any eager craving for the advice and assistance of professors and doctors.
In setting out for the university, I was to part with my father and my preceptor. The first of the... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER IV
IN this place I feel inclined to relate one of those stories of ingenious intellectual victory, as they considered them, of dull and unfeeling brutality, as they really were, in which too many of my college contemporaries prided themselves. A young man, during my residence at the university, entered himself of our college, who was judged by the gayer Oxonians singularly weir formed to be the butt of their ridicule. The dress in which he made his appearance among us was ungainly and ludicrous: the flaps of his waistcoat extended to his knees, and those of his coat almost to his heels: his black, coarse, shining hair, parted on the forehead, was every where of... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER V
IT is not my purpose to convert these honest pages into a record of dissipations; far less, of the rude and unseemly dissipations of an overgrown boy. There are few ebaracters more repulsive than that in which we find conjoined the fresh and ingenuous lineaments of a young man, in whom the down has scarcely yet shaded his prosperous cheek, with the impudence of a practiced libertine. I look back upon it with horror. Youth, if once it has broken through the restraints of decorum, is the minister of cruelty. Even in me, whose disposition was naturally kind and humane, there was too much of this. It is suffering only that can inspire us with true sympathy, that ... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER VI
The first woman who in this career fixed my regard, was a finished coquette, by which epithet I understand a woman whose ruling passion is her vanity, and whole invention is hourly on the rack for means of gratifying it. She was a lady of high rank, and married to a person of great figure at court. I first obtained her attention under favor of the epithet, by which the Parisian belles thought proper to distinguish me, of the handsome Englishman. Sir Charles, my introducer, was certainly of more established vogue than myself, and in this respect might have seemed a conquest still more flattering to a person of her character. But the mar... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER VII
I was in Paris, and I did as people of fashion in Paris were accustomed to do. I consoled myself for the infidelity of one mistress, by devoting my attentions to another. The qualities of the countess de B. were exceedingly unlike those of the marchioness; perhaps, led by a sentiment to which I was unconscious, I selected her for that very reason. The marchioness I have compared to the sleek and glossy-coated eel: forever restless, never contented with the thing, or the circumstances under which she was, you could never hold her to one certain mode of proceeding. the only way in which for her lover to become satisfied with her, was to p... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER VIII
I Hastened, as I have already said, from paris, and plunged amid the wild and desolate scenery of mount Jura. The next intended stage of my travels was Switzerland, and I pursued the road which led to that country. The first anxiety I felt was to escape from my sufferings and my disgrace. There first I had felt my mind agitated with hose emotions which are destined to have so mighty an influence on the fate of man. But how agitated I had loved. I had not loved innocence; I had not loved the chaste simplicity of the female character: my affections had not gone forth toward any object, which might refine and elevate my soul, which might fre... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER IX
THE second day after my arrival, M. Ruffigny conducted me on a little tour to the lake of Uri. "My country," said he, "makes but a petty figure in the map of the globe; and, perhaps, it maybe a frivolous sort of pride in me, that makes me feel complacency in recollecting that I am a burgher of Uri. I do not merely exult that I am a Swiss, but I sometimes indulge myself in a fastidious comparison between my native canton and the more spacious and opulent republics of Zurich and Berne. The little state which I inhabit, is nearly one cluster of rugged and inhospitable mountains; yet this is the district in which the Swiss liberty was engendered; and ... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER X
DURING our journey, Ruffigny communicated to me at large the particulars of his connection with my family, of which I had before heard in general terms, but knew nothing distinctly.
"While I was yet a child," said my fellow-traveler, " I had the misfortune to lose both my parents. By this event I fell under the care of an uncle, a brother of my father. Hypocrisy- and fraud are natives of every climate; and there are villains even in Switzerland. My uncle was copious in his professions of affection and fidelity during the last illness of my father, and protested a thousand times that he would in all respects treat me as if I had been sprung of his own... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER XI
I HAD for about three months frequented the lessons of my instructors, when one morning the elder of Vaublanc's sons came to my bed-side at about six o'clock, and bade me rise immediately, for his father wanted to speak to me. I obeyed.
" ' My little lad,' said Vaublanc, 'you are not to go to school to-day.' No, sir? What, is it red-letter day ?'
Your uncle has written to me to put you into a different berth.'
" ' Ah, I am very sorry ! Ours is a sweet school, and I like the masters and every body that belongs to it."
"' William Mouchard,' said my host, ' I know very little of you or your uncle either; but that is nothing to me. While he requires of me ... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER XII
"YOU will readily imagine what a thunder-stroke it was to me to be entered as one of the members in this vast machine. Up to the period of eight years of age I had been accustomed to walk upon the level plain of human society; I had submitted to my parents and instructors; but I had no idea that there was any class or cast of my fellow-creatures superior to that in which I was destined to move. This persuasion inspires into the heart, particularly the heart of the young, such gaiety of temper, and graceful confidence in action! Now I was cast down at once, to be the associate of the lowest class of mechanics, paupers, brutified in intellect, and sq... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER XIII
"BY degrees I became more serious and mediatating. I said to myself, 'What am I? and wherefore am I here?' The years of nonage in the human creature are many, partly because be is surrounded with parents, and kindred, and acquaintances, whose habit it is to take care of him, and to direct his steps. Perhaps the majority of human beings never think of standing by themselves, and choosing their own employments, till the sentence has been regularly promulgated to them, -It is time for you to take care of yourself. For my part, I found myself cast upon a new world, without relations, acquaintances, or friends, and this urged me on prematurely... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER XIV
"DIJON was so capital a city, that I thought I might venture here to change my piece of gold, the parting present of my treacherous uncle. But I was mistaken. I hated the clothes I wore, since they had led the wagoner to discover the situation to which I belonged. I went into a clothier's shop with a determination to change them. Unfortunately I plunged headlong into the house of a man of rugged temper and a hard-favored countenance. The moment I looked at him I trembled. But it was too late to draw back.
"'What is your pleasure, my lad?' said he.
"'I want some clothes.'
"'Where do you live? Who is to pay for them? W... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
VOLUME THE FIRST
CHAPTER XV
"NOTHING further of material importance occurred, till I arrived at Fontainebleau. It is difficult to express the rapture I felt at entering this celebrated scene. Fontainebleau had been to the kings of France, what Versailles has become since. It had been particularly honored by the residence of Henry IV; and Louis XIII, his successor, was born here. But, independently of this, here was a royal palace belonging to my intended patron,--the first I had ever seen. Having refreshed myself, and rested a short time, I found my way into the gardens, and viewed with enthusiasm the immenseness of the edifice. The fountains from... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
VOLUME THE SECOND
CHAPTER I
"WE went together to Paris, and arrived about the close of the evening. Our conversation had been eager and animated, and my companion proposed our taking up our lodging at the same inn. I was a total stranger in this great metropolis, and willingly accepted his suggestion. The streets by which we entered the capital were by no means so sumptuous as the idea of so celebrated a city had given me to expect; but I presently observed that my conductor led me away from the principal streets, and that his route lay through many a dark passage and many an alley. The house of reception to which we repaired corresponded to the... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
VOLUME THE SECOND
CHAPTER II
" No sooner did the thought occur to me, than I resolved to lose no time to realize it. I arrived at Versailles about the middle of a very hot day, broiling with the sun, and covered with dust. I immediately entered the park ; and, having gained a favorable situation for viewing the palace, protected by the shadow of overhanging trees, I threw myself upon the grass. The first idea that struck me was, Versailles is infinitely grander and more magnificent than Fontainebleau. With my eye I measured the piles, surveyed the architecture, and remarked the movable and immoveable objects around me.
" Shortly, however, I forgot myself, a... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
VOLUME THE SECOND
CHAPTER III
" HERE my reflections were sufficiently melancholy. I would have returned, if I had been able, to the hut of the sentinel who had invited me ; but that was unfortunately within the enclosure. What was I to do ? I was by no means cured of my project of speaking to the King. How bitter were my rage and indignation against the villain who had stripped me of the trifling sum of money on which I had depended ! I wanted, I thought, but a little time - but how was I to gain time, when I was without food? The objection I had heard made against me, was the meanness of my clothing: if my money bad not been taken from me, I could have removed thi... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER IV
'I should have told you, that about the time of my original departure for Lisbon, your grandfather settled with my consent a correspondence with a citizen of Zurich, upon whose: integrity and discretion he could perfectly rely: he observed, that whatever forbearance I might think proper to exercise toward my uncle and his family, it was but I reasonable that I should obtain, from time to time, information of his affairs. and learn which of the family were living and dead. 1 have already said that my uncle had been unprosperous in all his undertakings: the estate of my father. which he so wickedly seized, by no means introduced a better fortune into his a... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER V
In such talk I and my friend spent the chief part of our journey to England. We reached Merionethshire, and found a desolated mansion, and a tenanted grave. In the one, and over the other, we united our ears. 'My friend! my father! most generous of men' were the epithets with which a thousand times we saluted the shade of the departed.
And here I beg leave to protest against the doctrine too commonly promulgated in the world, that we ought to call off our thoughts, as speedily as possible, from the recollection of our deceased friends, and not waste our spirits in lamentation for irremediable losses. The persons from whom I have oftenest heard this lesson,... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER VI
M. Ruffigny continued with me several months; and during the remainder of his life, which was about six years, J generally made a visit once a year to the canton of Uri. The relation which existed between his family and mine was of the most interesting sort. Never in any age or country were two parties bound together by ties so noble. I looked in his face, and saw the features of the venerable Ambrose Fleetwood, and of my beloved father. What I remarked was not the thing we denominate family likeness, -the sort of cast of countenance by which descents and pedigrees, whether wise men or fools, whether knaves or honest, are, like the individuals of different natio... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER VII
My education and travels had left me a confirmed misanthropist. This is easily accounted for. I had seen nothing of the world but its most unfavorable specimens. What call be less amiable, than the broad, rude, unfeeling, and insolent debaucheries of a circle of young men, who have just begun to assume the privileges of man, without having yet learned his engagements and his duties? What can be more ignoble and depraved, than the manners of a court and a metropolis, especially of such a court and metropolis as those of the last years of Louis XV? My constitutional temper was saturnine and sensitive. This character of mind had been much heightened in me in m... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER VIII
Tired of the country, I repaired to London. To be presented at court, and occasionally to make one in the rout, the ball, or the festino of a lady of quality, were rather necessities I submitted to, than pleasures I sought. One advantage which I knew I should find in the metropolis, was an opportunity of frequenting the society of men of genius. I heard of a club of authors, several of whose works I had read with pleasure, and I obtained the favor of being admitted an honorary member. The society had assumed to itself a Greek name, as if by way of hint to the ignorant and the illiterate to keep their distance.
I did not, however, find in this society... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER IX
Among the members of our club who were not themselves authors, there were a few who were among the most distinguished ornaments of the English senate. The intercourse of these men was particularly delightful to me. Their manners were more urbane, attentive, flattering, and uniform, than those of the professional authors. They were gentlemen by birth and education; and, as they had not the same goad urging them along in the pursuit of praise as 1 those who embraced literature as a profession, their passions, at least as seen within these walls, were less restless, their views more enlarged, and their souls possessed of more calm and repose. -In this compariso... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER X
Displeased with the phenomena which I observed in the seat of empire, and satiated with the beauties of my paternal estate, I resolved once more to pass over to the Continent; and to seek, in the spectacle of different countries, and the investigation of dissimilar manners, relief from the ennui which devoured me.
This expedient seemed at first to answer my purpose. Novelty and change have a sovereign power over the human mind.
But the efficacy of this remedy did not last long. Wherever I went, I carried a secret uneasiness along with me. When I left Paris for Vienna, or Vienna for Madrid, I journeyed a solitary individual along the tedious road; and, when I en... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER XI
I saw that I was alone, and I desired to have a friend. Friends, in the ordinary sense of the word, and that by no means a contemptible sense, I had many; friends who / found pleasure in my conversation, who were convinced of the integrity of my principles of conduct, and who would have trusted me in the most important concerns. But what sort of a friend is it whose kindness shall produce a conviction in my mind that I do not stand alone in the world? This must be a friend, who is to me as another self, who joys in all my joys, and grieves in all my sorrows, not with a joy or grid that looks like compliment, not with a sympathy that changes into smiles when ... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER XII
I was now nearly forty-five years of age. Traveling on some factitious occasion near the Lakes of Westmorland and Cumberland, and listening, as my custom was, after whatever was extraordinary and interesting (I listened, as the reader has by this time perceived, with vain hope; what was called extraordinary, had scarcely the power to excite my attention; what interested others, moved not me), - I was told of a gentleman, by name Macneil, that had resided much in foreign countries, and was supposed particularly to have possessed the confidence of the celebrated Jean Jacques Rousseau, who had been some years an inhabitant of the banks of the Windermere. - He had ... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER XIII
My application had the desired issue. A polite answer was returned, expressing that Mr. Macneil would be happy to be favored with my visit. I was the more flattered with this, as the lady to whom I had mentioned my desire, a woman of no common sagacity, had predicted a different event.
I hastened to make use of the privilege I had obtained. I found the house of Mr Macneil uncommonly plain in its style, yet replete with every temperate convenience. The father of the family seemed to be upward of fifty years of age, and was tall, robust, and manly in his appearance. His hair was brown, short, and unpowdered; his ruddy cheek confessed that he was not neg... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
FLEETWOOD;
or, THE
NEW MAN OF FEELING.
by WILLIAM GODWIN.
CHAPTER XIV
Mr. Macneil was a man of the warmest philanthropy, and by degrees reposed in him a confidence, to which I had seldom felt excited toward any other man, After a time, I hired apartments in the house of a substantial farmer in his neighborhood, that I might the more freely enjoy his conversation and acquaintance, without being an interruption to the domestic economy of his family. I laid before him the secret grief that preyed upon my heart. I described the sickly sensibility of my temper, the early disgust I had taken at the world, and the miserable sense of desolation which preyed upon my life, in my detached and unconnected situation.
'Come,' replied ... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
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