Yet we now find him upon the verge of contracting marriage with a woman whom he did not passionately love, and who had offered herself unreservedly to him.

It is worth pausing to observe that even Shelley, fearless and uncompromising as he was in conduct, could not at this crisis practise the principles he so eloquently impressed on others.

Yet the point of weakness was honourable.

It lay in his respect for women in general, and in his tender chivalry for the one woman who had cast herself upon his generosity.

(See Shelley's third letter to Godwin (Hogg 2 page 63) for another defence of his conduct.