Truth to tell, the 'traces of a sincere affection for the young author,' which Mr. Garnett has discovered in Stockdale's words about Shelley, are so far from being distinctly apparent, that I have vainly sought for them in the pages, where they are so manifest to the author of _Shelley in Pall Mall_. I think Mr. Garnett goes a little too far in saying--
'Percy Shelley captivated all hearts: the roughest were subdued by his sweetness, the most reserved won by his affectionate candour.... In spite of his disappointment, Stockdale really appears to have been captivated by Shelley, and to have been not more forcibly impressed by the energy of his intellect than by the loveliness of his character.'
Gentlemen given to gushing often say more than they mean. I cannot conceive Mr. Garnett means all he says in his perplexing article. I have vainly worked through Stockdale's _Budget_ in search for the proofs, that Stockdale was forcibly impressed by the intellectual energy and moral loveliness of the author of _St. Irvyne_. But the 'Shelleyan enthusiasts' are so apt to weaken their case by exaggeration; they are so excessive in their statements. The notion that Stockdale the Libeller was a man to be captivated by moral beauty is comical.
MR. MACCARTHY'S DISCOVERIES TOUCHING THE OXONIAN SHELLEY.
_A Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things_--Evidence that the Poem was Published--Reasons for Thinking it may never have been Published--Reasons for Thinking that, if the Poem was Published, it was promptly Suppressed--Did Shelley contribute Prose and Poetry to the _Oxford Herald_?--Spurious Letter to the Editor of the _Statesman_--Shelley's First Letter to Leigh Hunt--His way of Introducing himself to Strangers--Did he at the Same Moment Think Well and Ill of his Father?--Miss Janetta Phillips's Poems--E. & W. Phillips, the Worthing Printers.
Before returning from Field Place to Oxford at the close of the Christmas Vacation (1810-11), readers who, in addition to a perfect view of Shelley's life at the University, wish to have a knowledge of all that has been written about that part of his career, will do well to consider certain matters with which Mr. Denis Florence MacCarthy may be said to have cumbered the highway of the poet's academic story. Considerations of prudence for himself, and of care for the interests of his readers, forbid the present writer to pass over these matters in silence, as though he were not cognizant of their existence. At the same time, he is disinclined to notice them in a chapter, where they would interrupt the narrative of the undergraduate's second term of residence at University College. He therefore decides to deal with them in a separate chapter, that may be lightly 'skimmed' or altogether skipt by the busy peruser of these volumes, whose curiosity respecting the poet's life is unattended by a keen appetite for details of Shelleyan controversy.